The Resume

(June 18, 1913-June 5, 1991)
Born in Patchogue, New York
Birth name was Sylvia Feldman
Economist and journalist
Financial editor for the New York Post (1935-78) and New York Daily News (1978-91)
Wrote a syndicated personal finance column
Wrote the books 'How to Make Money in Government Bonds' (1939), 'How to Live within Your Income' (1948), 'Money and You' (1949), 'Managing Your Money' (1953), 'How to Get More for Your Money' (1961) and 'Sylvia Porter's Money Book: How to Earn It, Spend It, Save It, Invest It, Borrow It and Use It to Better Your Life' (1975)

Why she might be annoying:

She was a nail biter and chain smoker.
She initially published her column under the byline 'S.F. Porter' to hide her gender.
Much of the media attention that followed after the Post disclosed that its columnist was a woman focused on her looks, with one headline declaring 'A Financial Editor Can Be Beautiful!'
She turned down an offer from Lyndon B. Johnson to head the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

Why she might not be annoying:

She skipped a couple of grades and graduated high school at age 16.
She decided to change her college major to economics after her widowed mother lost $30,000 in the 1929 stock market crash.
She said the goal of her column was 'to try to put these economic developments that affect everything we do into language that the average man and woman can not only understand, but will want to read because they are really interested.'
At its peak, her column was read by more than 40 million people.
LBJ once lamented, 'Why can't my economists talk straight like Sylvia?'

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 58]
• Celebrities Born on the Same Date [June] (Ranked: 6181913)
• Golden Girls References
• I Adopted a Child
• I am from Pound Ridge, NY
• I Attended Hunter College [New York City]
• I Attended NYU
• I Died in 1991 (Ranked: 77)
• I Have Emphysema
• I Married in 1979
• Look at Me, I'm on the Cover of Time
• Look at My Magazine Cover
• Man's World
• Nail Biters
• Newspaper Journalists/Editors/Publishers
• Person to Person - Guests [L-Z]
• Phi Beta Kappa Fraternity
• Profiles 36751-37000 (Ranked: 36876)
• World Almanac 25 Most Influential Women [1976]

Year In Review:

For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 20 Votes: 25.00% Annoying