Alice Partridge, wrote food column

Alice Partridge, 93, formerly of Snyder, who wrote a daily food column for the Courier-Express, died Saturday, Oct. 28, 2006, in Beechwood Continuing Care.

Born Alice Cornell, she graduated from Oneida High School and Albany State Teachers College. She taught English in Albany for two years before working as society editor of the then Albany Evening News. When the paper merged with the morning Knickerbocker Press, she moved to Springfield, Mass. as a general reporter.

Later, she worked briefly at a weekly newspaper in Maine then returned to New York and became women's editor of the Schenectady Gazette. There, she was part of a scenario-writing crew for World War II training films at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio.

She came to Buffalo to work for the Associated Press and starting as assistant day editor, became night editor, swing editor for the correspondent and acting correspondent in charge of the bureau. She was always proud that she was the first woman to be in charge of an AP office anywhere in the U.S.

"The scarcity of men in wartime gave women a foot in the door," she once said.

After her marriage to Charles Alden Partridge, a veteran AP employee, she took a less strenuous job in the women's department of the Buffalo Evening News. After two years, The Courier-Express asked her to start a woman's feature page and write a food column on the side. The food department soon expanded and took all her time. She wrote the column for 23 years, seven days a week.

Mrs. Partridge won several national awards for her food writing, including the Life Line of American Trophy given by the Grocery Manufacturers of America, and the Vesta Award, given by the American Meat Institute for excellence in food reporting. At one time, she was listed in Who's Who in American Women, Who's Who in the East and Who's Who in Business and Industry.

As Mrs. Partridge became well known, she was invited to visit food industries all over the country and sometimes abroad. She traveled to Spain as a guest of the olive and sherry interests there. In later years, she toured Europe with her husband, crossing the Atlantic a dozen times. A highlight was a trip to Paris where she interviewed France's leading food editor, Countess Toulouse-Lautree. She left the Courier-Express in 1972.

Mrs. Partridge was active in several women's organizations. She was past president of the WNY Branch, National League of American Pen Women, past president of the Suburban Women's Club of Buffalo and was active in the Women's Association of Christ United Methodist Church.

Her husband died in 1980.

Mrs. Partridge is survived by two step-children, John William of Plantation, Fla., and Carol Ann Solomom of Tamarac, Fla.

A memorial service will be held in Florida. Arrangements were made by the Harry A. Wedekindt Funeral Home.