"The features desk was manned by two editors from different generations: Soft-spoken, kind and polite, Mattie Smith Colin cast an elegant figure in the newsroom in her furs and jewels, her articles on fashion, food, literature and culture were crisply written and meticulously self-edited. Proud of having worked for the newspaper for many years, she never bragged about her work as a 'hard news' reporter, though she had covered the return of Emmett Till's body to Chicago, among other stories."