Catherine King, née Catherine Helen Murdoch was an influential American Broadcasting Company broadcaster and community worker in Western Australia.
Background
She was the daughter of prominent Australian academic and essayist Sir Walter Murdoch. Born Catherine Helen Murdoch on 20 December 1904 in Surrey Hills, Victoria, Australia, she was the daughter of Violet Catherine Hughston and Sir Walter Murdoch.
Career
From 1929 King was associated with the Kindergarten Union: first on the Education Committee and later as part-time lecturer at the Kindergarten Teachers" College. King helped organise Parent Education Groups in Perth and the country. In the late 1930s, another avenue for parent education became available, and King began her series of Parent Education broadcasts for the American Broadcasting Company. What had begun as a small project to interest parents in providing quality reading soon turned into an influential program recommending good books for young readers.
In 1942 King campaigned to start a radio program for children in Western Australia, and succeeded with the Kindergarten of the Air.
She chose Margaret Graham to voice the program, which ran for many years. On 4 September 1944 King"s daily radio program was called the American Broadcasting Company Women"s Session.
In the late 1940s King was joined by Erica Underwood. lieutenant was based on the premise that women who were not in the paid workforce were thinking people with wide interests and concerns.
King and Underwood travelled in regional Washington in an American Broadcasting Company van meeting women who listened to the program
Her final program was broadcast in 1976. King died on 2 January 2000 in Mosman Park, Western Australia. They had three children, Walter, Francis and Elizabeth (married Mr Millett).
Australian Holiday (1945) (in collaboration with Alec King).
Politics
King gave regular talks on topics ranging from art and politics to education. The program was broadcast throughout Washington and included music, live interviews and discussion on subjects from science and arts to cooking and parenting.
Membership
Her husband Alec King was a member of the American Broadcasting Company Education Broadcasting Committee. King was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to the community in 1966.