`The Duchess' looks back // Memoir spans Marmaduke's news career

Virginia Marmaduke remembers her first day on the job "in the fastlane of Chicago journalism," at the old Chicago Sun more than ahalf-century ago:

"The city editor looked me up and down. He said, `So, you don'twant any society stuff, you won't do fashion and you can't cook.Well, then, be prepared to cover blood, guts and sex - notnecessarily in that order.' "

Marmaduke - or "The Duchess," as she became known to herjournalistic compatriots - had many an adventure in the days whenwomen were anomalies in newsrooms.

Before it was over, her news career expanded from the Chicago Sun, to the Sun-Times, TV andradio.

Now 78, she retired 20 years ago to her ancestral home indownstate Pinckneyville. She volunteers most of her time as aconsultant and goodwill ambassador for Southern Illinois University.

But she still writes, with letters to the editor a specialty.Her latest project is a memoir, tentatively titled, The Babe in theNewsroom.

"That's because I started working with 40 men who'd say, `Who'sthat babe in the cityroom?' " laughs Marmaduke. Proceeds from thebook, due out by Thanksgiving, will go to establish her second SIUjournalism scholarship.

Does she regret having spent so much time being a pioneernewswoman that she missed marrying and having children?

"Oh, hell, who has time for regrets?" she asks. "Being anewsgatherer and observer is the most rewarding life."