Tee Loftin Snell

Background

Tee Loftin Snell was born as Thelma Lois Loftin on the 27th of January, 1922 in Kinston, North Carolina, United States, the daughter of Kirby William and Tiffany (Whaley) Loftin.

Education

Tee Loftin received a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri in 1942 and a Master of Arts degree in Journalism from American University in 1965.

Career

Tee Loftin began her career as a writer for radio stations in Missouri and Texas, among them was KBWD in Brownwood, Texas from 1942 to 1943, and KMOX, St. Louis from 1943 to 1944. In 1947 she moved to the Washington area, where she was a correspondent in 1954-64, then foreign correspondent in 1952, and reporter in 1953 for the Kinston Daily Free Press until 1958. During the 1950s, Loftin was also an editorial assistant to U.S. Representative Charles R. Jonas of North Carolina, as well as serving as the editor for the National Academy of Engineering.

Loftin next became involved in television, contributing to the quiz show "It's Academic" (WRC-TV) in 1950-1952 and originated the children's television show "Claire and Coco" which was on the air from 1965-69 (WMAL-TV).

From 1967 until her retirement in 1987, Ms. Loftin worked at the National Geographic Society, as a researcher and then a staff writer in the Special Publications Division, and briefly for World Magazine. Here she contributed chapters to a number of books published by the Society and traveled around the world to conduct research. Retiring, she continued to operate the publishing company she had founded earlier, Tee Loftin Publishers.

Tee Loftin wrote and published two books after leaving National Geographic, Contest for a Capital: George Washington, Robert Morris, and Congress, 1783-1791, Contenders: Dramatized Events of America's Founding Years in 1989 and Westward Go!: Fremont, Randy & Kit Carson Open Wide the Oregon Trail in 2000. Earlier works by Loftin include editing Andy Nault's Staying Alive in Alaska's Wild: True Adventures with Bears, Wolves, Wolverines, Beavers, Seals, Dogs, Volcano, Williwaws on Kodiak Island, Contact Point, Kamishak Bay and River, Tugidak Island in 1980 and writing City of Washington 1800: November 21, the First Workday of the United States Government in the New National Capital Founded by George Washington in 1982. She also published The Wild Shores: America's Beginnings in 1974.

Achievements

• As an active volunteer for the American Field Service and for the Washington, DC Parent Teacher Association, Tee Loftin was awarded a life membership.
  
  Loftin has been listed as a notable writer by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Wild Shores: America's Beginnings

    (To the wild and unknown shores of a new world, hesitantly...)

    1974
  • Contest for a Capital: George Washington, Robert Morris, and Congress, 1783-1791, Contenders: Dramatized Events of America's Founding Years 1989
  • Westward Go!: Fremont, Randy & Kit Carson Open Wide the Oregon Trail 2000

Membership

Tee Loftin was a member of the New Mexico Writers Association, National Congress of Parents and Teachers, District of Columbia Board Managers, Parent-Teachers Association, and The Santa Fe Playhouse.

• Parent-Teachers Association , United States

  1958 - 1962

• Board director

  The Santa Fe Playhouse , United States

  2000 - 2003

Connections

Tee Loftin was married to Edwin M. Snell whom she divorced in 1976. They had two children, Suzanne Snell Tesh and James L. Snell.

Father:

Kirby William Loftin

Mother:

Tiffany (Whaley) Loftin

Ex-husband:

Edwin M. Snell

Daughter:

Suzanne Snell Tesh

Son:

James L. Snell

Brother:

Leonard Loftin