A pioneer in the field of sports journalism, Mary Garber worked for the Winston-Salem Journal and its predecessor, the Twin City Sentinel, for more than 60 years.
Garber got her break in the business when the sports editor at the Sentinel left to fight in World War II. She had previously written for the society page and as a general assignment reporter. The only female sports reporter on the job in the area for nearly 30 years, Garber broke down racial barriers, too. In the midst of the segregationist atmosphere of the 1940s and 1950s, Garber was one of the few white reporters to cover black high school and college athletics.
During her more than 40-year career, Garber garnered more than 40 national and state awards for sports writing and was elected to the North Carolina Journalism and Sports Halls of Fame. She also became the first woman to join the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame in 2000.