July 1, 1956: The day 600,000 steelworkers went on strike nationwide, Pittsburgh Press reporter Mary O’Hara did what any good journalist would do: She went into the region’s steel towns to talk to those most affected. She found Mary Ann Palmer and her children living “just a stone’s throw away” from a mill, which is unidentified in the story. Mrs. Palmer told the Press she’d been dreaming of moving her family out of its four-bedroom house to “a place where you can hear yourself think.” Her children were identified as Sonny, Dimmie and Denise. Steelworkers won substantial pay increases during the month-long strike
Ms. O’Hara had a distinguished 40-year career at the Press, as a society editor and then a political columnist. She was the first woman to sit on the newspaper’s editorial board. She retired in 1984 and died in 2007 at age 93.
(Pittsburgh Press photo)
