Aline B. Saarinen (1914–1972)

Aline Saarinen, née Bernstein, was born in New York City. Both her parents were amateur painters and took her to Europe and encouraged her interest in the arts. She attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, then went on to Vassar College, where she studied art and developed an interest in journalism. After graduating with honors in 1935, she married Joseph H. Louchheim, a public welfare administrator with whom she had two sons. She enrolled at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts to study the history of architecture, earning a master's degree in 1941. She got a job with Art News magazine in 1944 and rose to become its managing editor from 1946 to 1948. She was hired by The New York Times to write about art and architecture, and also published articles in various national magazines. In 1951, she and her first husband divorced; two years later she met Eero Saarinen when she was sent to Detroit to interview him for the Times. They married in 1954 and Aline stopped writing about architecture to avoid conflict of interest. However, she continued writing for the Times as an art critic, now using the byline Aline B. Saarinen. In 1957, she won a Guggenheim fellowship and wrote The Proud Possessors, on American art collectors, which became a bestseller. In 1962, after Saarinen's early death, she edited the definitive book Eero Saarinen on His Work (1962). She began appearing on television to discuss art, and in 1963 was named art and architecture editor for NBC and served as art critic for the Today show. She made many specials and documentaries, including The Art of Collecting, which aired in January 1964. Later that year, she became a correspondent for NBC News, only the third female reporter on the network after Pauline Frederick and Nancy Dickerson. In 1971 she was named the chief of NBC's news bureau in Paris, a position she held until her death the following year. She won numerous awards including International Award for Best Foreign Criticism at the Venice Biennale in 1951, and the American Federation of Arts Award for best newspaper criticism in 1956.