{"id":1901,"date":"2019-08-24T22:00:22","date_gmt":"2019-08-25T02:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/?page_id=1901"},"modified":"2026-02-05T11:14:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T16:14:48","slug":"estelle-bill-belanger","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/hof\/estelle-bill-belanger\/","title":{"rendered":"Estelle \u201cBill\u201d Belanger"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"w-full xl:container mx-auto px-6\">\n<h3 class=\"lead\">Class of 1935<\/h3>\n<div class=\"marsha-row mt-4 mb-4 flex flex-wrap -mx-2 lg:-mx-6  justify-start border-0 border-gray-100 first:mt-0\"><div class=\"columns w-full lg:w-4\/12  lg:px-6    mt-6\"><div class=\"\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/files\/HOF-Belanger-300x415.jpg\" alt=\"Headshot image of Estelle \u201cBill\u201d Belanger\" width=\"300\" height=\"415\" \/><\/p>\n<p><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"columns w-full lg:w-8\/12  lg:px-6    mt-6\"><div class=\"\">\n<p>Bill Belanger was a pioneer in West Virginia journalism. After breaking barriers herself by becoming an editor in the 70s when most women journalists were restricted to the society sections, she was instrumental in establishing the West Virginia Press Women\u2019s Association and served as its first president. She was an art and drama critic for both Huntington newspapers. She served as an assistant city editor and as a feature editor for\u00a0<em>The<\/em>\u00a0<em>Huntington Advertiser<\/em>and as city editor and for<em>The<\/em>\u00a0<em>Herald-Advertiser.\u00a0<\/em>She earned many awards for critical reviews, and for feature and column writing. Her interest in education lasted a lifetime. Thirty-seven years after she completed her bachelor\u2019s degree, Belanger enrolled in the journalism program again and earn her master\u2019s degree in 1972. She was cited as a Woman of Achievement by the Wet Virginia Press Women. Belanger was awarded a study-research grant for a trip to the Orient on a \u201cMeet the People\u201d work and study project with special reports published about the arts for several countries. She was an active alumna the remainder of her life. During the latter part of her career with\u00a0<em>The<\/em><em>Huntington Advertiser<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>The<\/em>\u00a0<em>Herald-Dispatch<\/em>, she distinguished herself as the fine arts editor. For years after retiring, she continued to write columns.<\/p>\n<p><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Class of 1935<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":255,"featured_media":0,"parent":1654,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-legacy.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1901","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/255"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1901"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3128,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1901\/revisions\/3128"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/jmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}