Lewis Tipton, better known as “Tippy” Conrad was born on 15th July, 1930 in Evanston, Illinois, USA to parents Arthur Campbell and Lewis “Louie” Frances Stringer. She was named after her maternal grandmother, Sarah Lewis Tipton. Tipton was a famous TV Pioneer and Weather Reporter. She was one of the first women anchors on large-market news broadcasts. Tippy worked for WRC-TV and had a huge following in Washington. She was first married to the legendary newscaster Chet Huntley and later on, to actor William Conrad Jr.
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“Tippy” Conrad Personality
Tippy was beautiful and sophisticated along with being intelligent and high-spirited. She was hard-working and versatile and went beyond the newsroom.
Lewis Tipton Stringer Huntley Achievements
Ms. Stringer became WRC-TV’s resident ‘weather-girl’ in 1953 where she also hosted homemaking, cooking and weather shows.
She performed at the Shoreham hotel, juggling it with the TV shows, doing two floor shows and two weather shows back-to-back. She won national attention with her cartoon creation of Senator Fairweather in Life magazine in 1955.
She was also a weather presenter on a television show hosted by Willard Scott called Afternoon, featuring Jim Henson and his early Muppets. Tippy was one of the first entertainers to use the new wireless microphone technology.
Her talent was noticed on high-profile shows and she would often be called by The Washington business community to promote local products and appear in events and parades.
Lewis Tipton Stringer Huntley Personal and Career life
Stringer’s parents were graduates of the University of Chicago. Her father was an executive with the National Broadcasting Association. Tippy’s birth name was Lewis Tipton Stringer, leading many to believe she was a boy. Such a confusion cost her a dorm room in William and Mary College where she was assigned a men’s dormitory. She thus decided to attend the University of Maryland, changing her name permanently to Tippy. Stringer majored in theater and starred in many university productions. She was also crowned the homecoming queen in 1951. Her talent and magnetic personality attracted theater agents and film industry executives But the broadcasting industry is where she pioneered.
Stringer met Chet Huntley in 1957, during the flagship of the Huntley-Brinkley at NBC. She met him via satellite and the couple courted ‘virtually’ for several months. They got married in 1959. Though Stringer continued working for a few years, the demands of being a wife to the successful broadcaster eventually led her to abandon her career. But her natural theatrical talent kept herself involved.
Huntley retired from NBC news in 1970 and the couple settled in his home state of Montana and founded the Big Sky Resort outside Bozeman.
Huntley died in 1974, Stringer became a lecturer on the hardships of becoming a widow. She also bid as a Republican Congressional candidate for Montana in 1978.
Stringer met actor William Conrad in 1980. He was the original voice of Marshall Matt Dillon on the radio version of Gunsmoke. He was also known for his television shows such as Cannon. The couple married the same year. Tippy helped Conrad in managing his career, till his death in 1994.
In 1995 Tippy Stringer founded the Stringer Foundation, funding literacy groups, public broadcasting, women’s shelter, animal protection groups, and reproductive education. She died on 1st October at Beverly Hills, California.
