Carolyn Pickering Lautner '45
Butler Medal, 2007
Carolyn Pickering Lautner came to Butler in 1941
from Anderson, Ind., on a scholarship that paid her tuition of $150
each semester as long as she maintained a 3.5 grade point average.
She managed to do that, and had time to join many campus
organizations including Kappa Kappa Gamma, Scarlet Quill, Phi Chi
Nu, Spurs, Theta Sigma Phi, the Association of Women Studies and
YWCA. She also served as the associate editor of the Butler
Collegian.
When most of the Indianapolis Star 's male reporters
left for the war, editors called Butler for journalists. At the age
of 18, Carolyn joined the Star full-time as the first
woman police reporter in Indiana. After graduating from Butler in
1945, Carolyn left the Star to work for a Chicago
newspaper, only to return to the Star in 1952. From 1952
to her retirement in 1978, Carolyn, who was known throughout the
industry as "Pick," broke some of the city's biggest stories. She
was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 1996.
Following her retirement from journalism, she worked as a real
estate broker with the Margaret Evans Company, Inc
Carolyn has long supported Butler, both as a volunteer and
donor. Carolyn was a member of the Alumni Board from 1994-98 and
served on the Advisory Board for the Athletics Department from
1996-98. Carolyn has also participated in numerous campus and
alumni events. She also meets with students and alumni who are
interested in careers in journalism and real estate.
In 2004, Lautner endowed the David Lautner Memorial Golf
Scholarship in loving memory of her son David Lautner '74. Carolyn
also has a daughter, Diane. Her son-in-law James Urbain graduated
from Butler in 1963.