The Press: Something for Roberta

When fire destroyed her home in a Chicago suburb, 14-year-old Roberta Lee Mason rescued four brothers & sisters. But she was burned so badly that she had to be swathed in bandages from head to foot. Her throat-catching picture (TIME, Feb. 28) made front pages across the U.S. Soon money, clothes, even chewing gum began to pour in; everybody wanted to “do something for Roberta.” But what the Masons needed was a new house.

Managing Editor Eliezer (“Lou”) Shainmark of Hearst’s Chicago Herald-American saw a way to combine a good deed and a good story. He got his labor editor to talk to big Mike Sexton, boss of the local A.F.L. Carpenters Union. Mike pulled on an old khaki jacket and went out to build the house himself—his first carpentry job in 32 years. Other unions contributed labor while builders supplied materials. This week, a $17,000 free Cape Cod-style house for Roberta was rising out of the ashes of the old one.