Show Business Business Today Today Today- Woman Rises To Top in Insurance J. By PAUL GESNER ER and JOHN JOliN BECKLEY ECKLEY NEW YORK July 17 Telegram Special News Service FrOm From rom a pioneers pioneer's dugout In rural Oklahoma to presidency of the New York Life Underwriters Underwriters' association that would be an unusual ute life story lot for fofa lota a man Actually It Is the life lIle story to date date of MIss Beatrice Jones The New York Life Underwriters' Underwriters association asso iSSO- t trade trade ade fraternity of ot the life insurance Industry Industry broke broke a a. 55 year tradition last month when they elected Miss Jones Of roughly rough rough- ly Jy 2500 members of the association a- a tJ ti tion n only about are women When It comes to personnel pol pot Ides ot of most most- life Insurance companies com corn Miss Miss' Jones has much to say Se thinks the ordinary ordnary methods methods meth meth- of selecting and promoting personnel personnel per per- In the life Insurance busness bus ness are absurd The usual practice practice tice of making the star salesman agency manager Is particularly Unsound unsound unsound un un- sound says sas Miss Jones Sees Difference She believes the qualities which make an excellent salesman are are very different from those which make a good manager Necessity fired Beatrice Jones at an early age When the Cherokee Cherokee Cherokee Chero Chero- kee Strip in Oklahoma was opened her parents dashed In and staked out their homestead There were no roads to bring in lumber and Beatrice was born in the family dugout Soon family requirements eased There was was-no need to keep her I nose to the grindstone Her itch i for tor knowledge kept growing so Beatrice saved up and at the age of 23 set out for New York just to see what made things tick In the great metropolis The supplemented by funds f from om occasional odd jobs lasted two years Attended Lectures She took a course or two at Columbia attended scads scads v of lectures lectures lec lec- tures saw all the shows In New NewYork NewYork NewYork York from the peanut gallery galler buying buying buying buy buy- ing tickets weeks In advance to get In cn n the front row attended all the museums and art galleries went to concerts A week before her balance balance bal hal ance would have hit zero she landed a position in the personnel department of the Standard Oil of New Jersey At 30 she was In charge of f women's women's wom worn ens en's personnel drawing a fine sal sal- ary At 30 she had reached just about the highest position a woman could hope for in the company and very close to the top salary Takes Up Insurance So In 1928 1922 the girl with the unquenchable unquenchable unquenchable un un- un- un quenchable curiosity jumped into the life insurance business She claims she wanted to find out if she was really worthy anywhere near as much money as she had been making at Standard She wondered whether she had just been luck lucky About six years ago she married J. J B. B Deacon vice president and director of Schenley corporation and doesn't have to work now but continues on the job just for the fun tun of it iL She has a lot of ideas in the back of her head and she still is anxious to work them out |