Working Moms: Lois Wyse’s Impact on Mot/herhood and Advertising

Lois Wyse

Baby Boomers may be the last generation whose mothers generally were stay-at-home moms, taking care of the house, baking cookies, and so forth. Or so the stereotype goes.

But some had moms who went to a job outside the home every day. What is the norm now was the exception 60 years ago. And it created a lot of angst, as moms worried about whether their kids would become normal as they reached adulthood.

One of those working moms was an advertising executive – indeed, co-founder of her own ad agency.

Get your copy of Kathy Wyse Goldman’s book

Her name was Lois Wyse. You may not have heard of her, but you know some of the brands that she worked on. She is the one who came up with the slogan, “with a name like Smuckers, it has to be good.” Bed Bath And Beyon was just “BedAnd Bath” before Lois suggested adding “Beyond.”

In the early 1990s Lois’s daughter Kathy Wyse Goldman – by then herself a working mother – began to consider and appreciate her upbringing in a way she hadn’t before. And it inspired her to write a book, which she called My Mother Worked and I Turned Out OK.

And so it was on the day in early May 1993 that I met with Kathy and Lois to talk about the book.

So here now, from 1993, Kathy Wyse Goldman and her mom Lois Wyse.

Lois Wyse died in 2007 at age 80.

From the White House to the Teenage House: Liz Carpenter’s Unplanned Parenthood

Jenkins Garrett with Liz Carpenter in UTA Library’s Special Collections, 1987

Imagine this scenario: you have lived a full life as a war correspondent, an aide to a president, a press secretary to a First Lady, and a leader in important social movements.

And just as you have retired to what should have been a comfortable life you are suddenly thrust into being a parent again.

That is what really happened to Liz Carpenter, once a key figure in the Lyndon Johnson administration in the 1960s.

But when her brother died in 1993, his three unruly teenagers came to live with Liz Carpenter. And she found herself, at age 73, a mother once again.

In her 1994 book Unplanned Parenthood Carpenter describes the unique challenges she faced. But she also had some wise and insightful thoughts about those Generation X people she was raising, and their peers.

So here now, from 1994, Liz Carpenter.

Liz Carpenter died in 2010. She was 89.


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Al Roker

Photo: Brian Solis

Not all funny people on TV are comedians. Some are weathermen, like NBC’s Al Roker.

For years, Roker has been a fixture on The Today Show. And in 2000, he wrote a funny book about fatherhood, and especially the challenges of raising children years apart in age.

But as you’re about to hear, it wasn’t all jokes and humor. Al Roker had some serious and poignant things to say about fatherhood.

So here now, from 2000, Al Roker:

Al Roker is 66 now. He’s been with NBC for 42 years.