Remembering 'DJ'

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Loyal TV viewers made “DJ” a local celebrity.

Courtesy of WSAZ-TV

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HUNTINGTON — Her full name was Dorothy Jeanne Schroeder, but her family
 and friends, as well as countless television viewers, simply called her “DJ.”

Born in 1923, she was the daughter of J. Bert Schroeder,
who became Cabell County sheriff, and Stella Pancake
Schroeder, a member of the family that
founded the Pancake Realty Co.

Her family sent her to Arlington Hall School for Girls, a Virginia
 finishing school, but her studies there were interrupted when
 World War II prompted the school to close. She returned
to Huntington, enrolling at Huntington High School
 and later Marshall University.

In future years, she recalled working as Mamie Eisenhower’s
 fan mail secretary when General Eisenhower was
successfully campaigning for president. She
 then moved to Hollywood, where she
worked in the public relations
department at 20th
Century Fox.

Returning to Huntington, she took a job at Radio Station WSAZ.
 In 1949, when WSAZ Television went on the air, she began
 appearing on some of its live local programs.

Then she became WSAZ’s more-or-less permanent “weather
 girl,” as female forecasters were then known. She had no
meteorological training, of course. The station had
 hired a meteorologist to research the forecasts.
 Before each program he would sit down and
explain what she was supposed to say as
she stood in front of the weather map.

She was always smartly dressed and her hair perfectly coiffed.
 Never mind that she sometimes got her weather “highs” and
“lows” confused. The viewing public loved her, and she soon
 became a local celebrity. Long after she aired her last
 weather forecast, she was thrilled to be inducted into
 the West Virginia Broadcasters’ Hall of Fame.
 “DJ” died at the Woodlands Retirement
Community in 2013. She was
 90 years old.

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Note:  This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on July 26, 2022..

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