Peck, Stacey 1925–2007

(Esther Lucille Nathan)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born October 12, 1925, in Chicago, IL; died of heart failure, September 22, 2007, in Los Angeles, CA. Publicist, journalist, social historian, and author. Peck, who reportedly changed her birth name from Esther to Stacey for career reasons, worked as a publicist for the first twenty years of that career. Her employers included political groups, medical institutions, and department stores. In 1979 she began to write an interview column for the Los Angeles Times. In that column and in articles for magazines—women's magazines and health journals in particular—Peck interviewed hundreds of celebrities from many walks of life. The interviews that attracted critical attention, however, were the ones she conducted in the People's Republic of China in 1983. These interviews of Chinese women, combined with material that she collected from Chinese women who had immigrated to the United States, were published in Halls of Jade, Walls of Stone: Women in China Today(1985). The China-based interview subjects, nearly fifty in number, had been hand-picked by Chinese officials, but their oral histories spanned a broad range of backgrounds and occupations. The book presented what was, at the time, a rare look at life in China during and after the Cultural Revolution of the decade that ended after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. After the publication of her book, Peck resumed her career as a freelance journalist.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, September 29, 2007, p. B10.