Reporter Woody dies at 80

Longtime State-Times and Morning Advocate reporter Cynthia Woody died Monday at St. James Place.

She was 80.

Woody, an award-winning feature writer who retired in 1981, spent 1989-1991 as a Peace Corps volunteer in Beijing. After she retired, Woody was a writer and editor at the Council on Aging’s Platinum Record.

Woody, who called herself an Army brat, was born at Fort Sill, Okla. She was a graduate of the Academy of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans and LSU.

At LSU, she worked as a part-time copy girl at the State-Times.

She became a member of the afternoon newspaper’s staff in 1954.

After the death of her husband, Frank “Bucky” Woody, Woody decided to fulfill her dream of living in China.

When her two-year stint in China with the Peace Corps ended, Woody taught English in Japan before returning home via the Trans-Siberian Railroad and a freighter she boarded in Europe.

“China was better than I ever dreamed,” she said. “And a memory is better than a dream.”

Woody will be buried next to her husband on a hillside in Lexington, Miss. No memorial service is planned.

Donations in Woody’s name may be made to Hospice of Baton Rouge.