HomeMy WebLinkAboutJudy Riley on Mabel Claire Thomas Transcript, WTAW First 100 YearsProject HOLD
WTAW Interview
Judy Riley | Granddaughter of former radio host Mabel Thomas
Tom Turbiville | WTAW Radio Host
Daniel Hayes | Transcriber
Transcript
00:00:00 Dick Bolin (DB)
Here's the latest news from the Associated Press. Anytime now, the big -
00:00:03 Speaker 2
WTAW will join new businesses from across the Brazos Valley.
00:00:07 Speaker 3
Aggies win 74-72. Here's your ride.
00:00:12 Speaker 4
16.20 WTAW.
00:00:19. Tom Turbiville (TT)
This is WTAW The First 100 Years. I'm Tom Turbiville. Mabel Claire Thomas was a superstar of
WTAW radio, starting in the early 1930s and continuing for more than 20 years as the storybook
lady. Mabel was a published poet even before that. Saturday Evening Post, Highlights for
children, among the many publications her work appeared. Her granddaughter, Judy Riley, is a
bona fide Mabel Thomas historian.
00:00:49 Judy Riley (JR)
Publishers would send her books, these were first editions and she would interview them on the
radio and we had hundreds of these first edition books and I had a garage sale and silly me I sold
a lot of them we-we-we still have-have some left. Her library consisted of thousands of these
books.
00:01:14 TT
In 1943, Mabel started a weekly WTAW program called the Story Hour. But long before that, she
had broadcasted the Vesper service from St. Thomas Chapel.
00:01:26 JR
Oh, she was such a lady, and she was very gentle and she had a low voice, pleasing to listen to
her. She always wore a dress, she always wore a hose and she always those look like medical
shoes uh, the big clunky heel and yeah, yeah.
00:01:46 TT
Mabel Claire Thomas will forever be a shining star of College Station and will continue to be a
star of WTAW the first 100 years