Louise Degn papers

Collection

Identifier: ACCN 2149

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Louise Degn papers (1946-2015) consist of personal and professional correspondence, journals, sheet music, newspaper clippings, and various materials such as scripts and research related from work as a reporter for KSL and a professor at the University of Utah. The collection also includes documents and internal KSL correspondence concerning to the controversial program "Mormon Women and Depression," which almost did not air.

Dates

Creation: 1946-2015

Creator

Degn, Louise (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.

Conditions Governing Use

The library does not claim to control copyright for all materials in the collection. An individual depicted in a reproduction has privacy rights as outlined in Title 45 CFR, part 46 (Protection of Human Subjects). For further information, please review the J. Willard Marriott Library’s Use Agreement and Reproduction Request forms.

Biographical Sketch

Louise Degn was born in Logan, Utah on May 25th, 1946. She attended Ogden High School, graduated from Utah State University, and later received a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University. She worked for several years at KSL, a local news station, as the only woman broadcast news reporter in Utah. During her career as a television reporter, she produced the program "Mormon Women and Depression" for Dimension Five despite intense pressure against it from the LDS church. For this and other programs she produced, she won several awards praising her perspective on the lives of Utah women. In 1990, she began teaching at the University of Utah Communication Department where she produced a program on women's suffrage in the western United States, "Let the Women Vote!" Louise served a LDS mission at the Australia-Brisbane Mission in 1973; however, after the 1993 LDS Purges she helped run a small nondenominational religious group called "Sunday Gatherings." Throughout her life, she played and composed music, and performances of her compositions are maintained on her website. Despite her worsening physical condition later in her life, she continued to conduct for her local ward's choir until her death on May 8th, 2015.

Extent

15.25 Linear Feet (33 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

The Louise Degn papers (1946-2015) consist of personal and professional correspondence, journals, sheet music, newspaper clippings, and various materials such as scripts and researchfrom her work as a reporter for KSL and a professor at the University of Utah. The collection also includes documents and internal KSL correspondence concerning to the controversial program "Mormon Women and Depression," which almost did not air.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Box 1 was donated in 2005 (0.25 linear feet).

Box 2 was donated in 2006 (0.5 linear feet).

Boxes 3-5 were donated in 2007 (1.5 linear feet).

Boxes 6-33 were donated in 2016 (13 linear feet).

Related Materials

Forms part of the Aileen H. Clyde 20th Century Women's Legacy Archives.

Separated Materials

See also the Louise Degn broadcast journalism audio-visual collection (A0747) and the Louise Degn photograph collection (P1160) in the Multimedia Division of Special Collections.

Processing Information

Processed by Roger V. Paxton, Samuel J. Passey, and Elizabeth Rogers in 2005-2006 and 2007.

Addendum processed by Sean Taylor in 2016.

Addendum processed by Kristina Barksdale in 2024.

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