Joseph was born on February 11, 1904 in Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States, the son of Joseph Hudson Short, an attorney and United States district court deputy clerk, and Irene Elizabeth Jones Short. The military careers of his two grandfathers, who had served on opposing sides in the Civil War, and the drama of World War I led Short to aspire to a military career
Short graduated from Vicksburg High School in 1920. He attended Marion (Alabama) Institute and then Virginia Military Institute, receiving the B. A. in 1925. By that time, however, Short's interests had shifted to journalism.
Having edited the campus newspaper, the Cadet, he went to work for the Jackson (Mississippi) Daily News as a copy reader and reporter in 1925-1926 and 1927-1928, working in the interim year for the Vicksburg Post and Herald. During 1928-1929 Short was with the New Orleans Times-Picayune, for which he covered a bitter traction strike in that city.
In 1929 he joined the Richmond bureau of the Associated Press and after two years transferred to the AP office in Washington, District of Columbia, where he remained until 1941. In Washington he reported the eviction of the bonus marchers and the trial of Bishop James Cannon, scored an early story on the death of Arkansas Senator Joseph T. Robinson, covered the White House, and directed coverage of the House of Representatives.
In 1941 Short joined the Washington bureau of the Chicago Sun but moved in 1943 to the Washington staff of the Baltimore Sun, where he remained until 1950. He had already traveled widely, covering President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and in 1944 he joined Harry Truman's vice-presidential campaign train at Madison, Wisconsin. A cordial relationship was cemented during presidential trips to Mexico City and Brazil in 1947, and to Bermuda and Key West. Short considered the Truman cross-country campaign of 1948 the hardest, largest, and most interesting assignment of his career as a political reporter.
On December 8, 1950, President Truman named Short presidential press secretary, to succeed Charles G. Ross, who had died suddenly at his desk. Short assisted Truman in preparing speeches and official statements, and served as general adviser. He soon appointed two assistants, Irving Perlmeter and Roger Tubby, to share the workload that he had extended to include coordinating the public information activities of the cabinet departments.
While recuperating from a viral infection, he fell dead of a heart attack in Alexandria, Virginia.
Joseph Hudson Short Jr. became the first newspaperman to go directly from the White House press room to the office of the press secretary to President Truman. He sought to broaden the channels of communication between his office and the press room, and he conceived the idea of taping presidential press conferences. Among the important news stories that Short handled was the removal of General Douglas MacArthur from command in April 1951.
Despite his often serious countenance, Short was a man of good humor.
On December 27, 1937, he married Elizabeth (Beth) Roberta Campbell, an AP writer assigned to cover the activities of Eleanor Roosevelt. They had three children.
