Betty Chadwick-Sullivan
Betty Chadwick-Sullivan was the nation’s first female television photographer and paved a way for women in broadcasting. She first worked for the Brazil Daily Times newspaper for 14 years and then was hired by WTHI-TV, Terre Haute, in 1958.
Joe Higgins, general manager of WTHI-TV, and Howard Caldwell, the news director, took a chance on hiring Chadwick-Sullivan but soon recognized her strengths. She sought out interviews with politicians and celebrities and photographed assignments throughout the United States and in foreign countries. She was even promoted to chief photographer of the station.
She covered political conventions, including the Republican National Convention of 1964, and became friends with many of the figures she photographed. She also covered local and state political gatherings.
Chadwick-Sullivan carried her own equipment, including a 29 pound camera, tripod, battery pack and lights. She wore jumpsuits in a variety of colors that her mother, who was a seamstress, embroidered with her name and station call-letters. The outfits were her trademark.
In 1962, Chadwick-Sullivan spent a month in Europe filming a reserve Air Force member. In 1963, she covered "Operation Big Lift." She was the first woman allowed to take pictures in the pit area and Victory Lane at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race.
Her fame as a female television photographer grew, and she was invited on several quiz shows. She appeared with her husband, Don Sullivan, on the ABC show "One in a Million."
Midwest Broadcasting, a group formed in Indianapolis trying to obtain Channel 13, asked Chadwick-Sullivan to be the program director, and she accepted. She worked to put the programs together, hire personnel and other tasks. When the manager, Frank Parrish, died of a heart attack, Chadwick-Sullivan assumed even more responsibility.
"It threw me into a position I certainly didn't want to be in," she said. "But I didn't have any choice."
Chadwick-Sullivan said things change rapidly in news reporting and it's difficult to teach ethics in journalism because everyone comes from a different background. In 1979, she became executive producer of WTHI-TV News.
Chadwick-Sullivan died of cancer in 1981 at age 55. Her husband also died in 1981.
Luzane Draughon
-Information from Indiana Broadcast Pioneers and "In the Public Interest"