Dora Walters speaks to Historical Society tonight

Longtime Longboat Observer Senior Editor Dora Walters will speak to the Longboat Key Historical Society at 7 p.m. tonight at Christ Church of Longboat Key, Presbyterian, 6400 Gulf of Mexico Drive.

Walters, who retired in 2013, will give the inside scoop on some of her biggest stories.

Walters began her career with stints at the Schenectady Gazette in New York and the Burlington Free Press in Vermont, then did freelance public-relations work in New York City before heading to Mexico, where she traveled the country writing stories for an organization to show donors where their money went.

She moved in the 1960s to Florida and began writing for the now-defunct Sarasota News. She later wrote for the St. Petersburg Times, became the first female reporter for Channel 13 and eventually director of the nightly news for Channel 40.

Longboat Observer founder Ralph Hunter hired Walters in 1987.

More than 150 people celebrated her retirement Jan. 31, 2013 — a day Mayor Jim Brown proclaimed would be known as Dora Walters Day.

Walters now lives in Morganton, Ga.

Contact Robin Hartill at [email protected].