Papers of Jeanetta Lyle Menninger

Abstract: Jeanetta Lyle Menninger's collection of personal papers is quite small. It provides some information about her professional activities, including as editor for the Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, as well as about her personal interests and involvement in such organizations as the American Medical Writers Association, Kansas Press Women, and the Mulvane Art Center at Washburn University. Much of the material consists of correspondence, manuscript drafts, certificates, newsletters, and other related materials. The bulk of Jean's papers date from the 1950s and 1960s.

Biog. Sketch (Full): Jeanetta Lyle was born on 20 November 1901 in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Edward Gerard and Jeanetta Patterson Lyle. She had four brothers and one sister. She attended Park College in Parkville, Missouri, earning an undergraduate degree in English in 1923; she did some graduate work at Columbia University of New York in 1930-31 and took special courses at Central College for Women in Lexington, Missouri; Washburn University of Topeka; and the Kansas City Art Institute.

After graduating from Park College, Jeanetta held a variety of positions around the United States. She taught at a preparatory school and was principal of the Preparatory Department of the Central College for Women, was a reporter and feature writer for the Utica Daily Press of New York as well as a copy writer in the Columbia University public relations department; and she was a research assistant on a project for the Carnegie Foundation in California in 1937-1941, as well as writing free-lance materials.

In the early 1930s, Jeanetta contacted Karl Menninger, suggesting he hire her as his secretary to handle correspondence related to his monthly column in the Ladies Home Journal, and he agreed. She quickly became important in a variety of writing matters for Dr. Karl and for the Menninger institutions of the time. She assisted Karl in his compositions and became the founding editor of the Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic in 1936, a position she held until her retirement in 1970. She also served as director of the Division of Publications under the Menninger Foundation from 1946 until 1964 and was editor of the Menninger Clinic Monograph series beginning in 1942.

Dr. Karl divorced Grace Gaines Menninger in early 1941 and married Jeanetta on 8 September 1941. The couple adopted a daughter a few years later, Rosemary Jeanetta Karla Menninger, born 2 February 1948.

Jeanetta held a number of professional and personal associations and memberships, such as in the American Medical Writers' Association, the Kansas Press Women, and the National Association of Science Writers. She served as a trustee for her alma mater Park College as well as for the Mulvane Art Center (associated with Washburn University), the Villages, and the Family Service and Guidance Center of Topeka, Kan.

Jeanetta Lyle Menninger died on 6 December 1994.