Marian Clark

Marian Clark (born Marian Alice Clark; June 25, 1912February 26, 1963) was an American scriptwriter for radio and television series during the 1950s and early 1960s, most notably for the long-running, iconic Western series Gunsmoke, which aired on CBS Radio from 1952 to 1961 and on CBS Television for two decades. Clark ranks among the most prolific writers in the history of Gunsmoke; and prior to her work on that series, she was also one of the first women in American radio to be employed full time as a news writer for a major regional station and affiliate of a national broadcasting network. Early life Marian Clark was born in Alameda County, California, in 1912 and was the eldest of three children of Laura Lee (née Bransford) and Albert Lee Clark. Her father, a native of Missouri, had moved to California by 1910 and was working that year as a journalist in San Francisco. Later, Albert moved the short distance to Berkeley, where in 1920 he was serving as city editor of the local newspaper, a position that may have influenced Marian early in life and prompted her later as a young woman to venture into radio journalism as a profession. By 1930, however, her father had relocated the entire family to Oakland; and he had changed careers, working there as an "advertising man" in real estate. Radio news writer Little is known about Clark's personal or professional life between the 1930 federal census and late 1942, when she enrolled in a 10-week training workshop offered by radio station KNX in Los Angeles. Due to the shortage of "manpower" on the home front in the United States during World War II, new job opportunities were opening to women in a wide variety of fields, including radio broadcasting. Station KNX in Los Angeles provided such opportunities through its "Hollywood Workshop", which offered training and advancement for "girl staff members" at KNX. The station's department heads taught classes to prepare workshop participants for assorted positions available in radio, such as news writers, transcription operators, mailroom clerks, and publicity managers. In its February 22, 1943 issue, the trade magazine Broadcasting recognized Clark as one of the recent graduates of KNX's Hollywood Workshop. Since the workshop was 10 weeks in length and available only to staff members, Clark must have been working at KNX by at least the final months of 1942.