Alexis Magner was born in Troy, N.Y., to Mary and Arthur Magner in 1956. When she was young, she and her family moved to Pittsfield, Mass., where she spent most of her life. Being the couple’s only child, she said she was "spoiled rotten."
Throughout college, she had no idea what she wanted to do with her life. "I didn’t major in journalism. I thought it was horrible. It would be like having a term paper due every day and the idea of deadlines was horrible," she said.
Instead, she majored in music and psychology for fun, but with no intentions of pursuing either as a career. "I had no idea what I wanted to do with my education. I knew I didn’t want to teach, and I was not good enough at the instrument I played [the flute] to make a career out of it," she said.
After graduating from Smith College in 1978, Magner traveled across the country with her best friend and lived off of money supplied by her parents. She spent some time on Cape Cod and in Boston. While in Boston, at age 22, she worked for politician, 19-year-old Tom Lussier, "possibly the youngest state representative ever," she said.
While working in Lussier’s office, she met -- and then soon, began to date -- G. Wayne Miller, a young reporter who covered the politician for The Transcript, a small daily newspaper in North Adams, Mass.
Magner fell in love with Miller and the two were married in 1980. A year later, Alexis Magner Miller gave birth to Rachel, the couple’s first child. The family of three moved to Rhode Island shortly after.
Alexis stayed home to care for Rachel while her husband spent his days working for The Providence Journal. In 1985, the editor of the Journal’s book review page was short staffed and asked Alexis to write a review, which she did.
"I was so non-journalistically oriented that I kept on calling the book review a book report, and my husband would tell me I was not in grade school any more. The editor would tell me he needed 12 inches and to slug it ‘Alex book,’ and I just didn’t know the jargon. Luckily I had Wayne at home to answer my questions and help me out."
Alexis continued doing book reviews and also began writing features for the Journal’s Sunday magazine as a free-lancer. She wrote feature stories until the early '90s, when she switched to doing some hard news, covering just about everything and anything that went on in towns in the area. "I hated it [news reporting]. I appreciate the people who do it well, but I just love feature writing," she said.
Alexis became the editor of the Sunday Homes section of the Journal about 3 1/2 years ago, and also writes columns. "I love my job so much right now that I’m afraid to tell people because I feel like I’m not supposed to be happy at work," she joked.
Alexis and her husband founded the Cambridge Company, "a premium writing, editing, doctoring, proposal and publishing service." They "do writing coaching and private editing and then we work with graphic printers to bind the piece into a book," she explained.
Throughout history, women reporters have faced discrimination. Alexis said, "Occasionally there are people, like cops for instance, who do not take you as seriously."
"For better or worse, I tend to do reporting in the so called ‘female’ sections anyway, but I’m doing something that interests me. I would also love to do fashion reviews, but we don’t have that section at the paper," she said.
Alexis said journalists must be "naturally curious. What motivated me to understand and to want to tell a good story? I’m nosy! I find myself at cocktail parties, not having a conversation with people, but interviewing them."
Alexis said one of her most challenging and memorable experiences in the newsroom was when she covered a story about the death of a 16-year-old boy named Eric. His father walked into the office to deliver Eric’s picture. While he was there he said to her, "Always treasure your children . . . and by the way, Eric is spelled with a ‘c’ not a ‘k.’"
She believes women journalists become successful the same way men do. "All reporters need to have that curiosity and attention to detail. Things that may seem silly and small, like the spelling of a person’s name, really count to people."
She added, "You would be a lousy reporter, feature writer, or even news photographer if you can’t walk into a room and be able to figure out what’s going on."
Several people in Alexis’ life influenced her along the way to her career in journalism. Her seventh grade English teacher, Mrs. Adler, was one of her strongest mentors. "She was mean at first, but she helped me so much and she just turned out to be wonderful," Alexis said.
Her husband also influenced her just by being in the house writing all the time. "You know what they say, if you grow up around it, you are very likely to become it," she said.
Two women at the Journal also influenced Miller: Pat Welker, her boss, who she said is a real advocate for women, and Carol Young, the paper’s deputy executive editor. "These two women mentored me, brought me downtown and gave me my job," she said.
"The first time I put out the home section on my own I was terrified -- and then amazed when it was done," she recalled. Her success has been honored; she has been named "Best Columnist" by the Rhode Island Press Association.
Besides her work at the Journal, Alexis is president of The Friends of Jesse Smith Library, an organization that plans events at the library. She also authored two books of humor, Turning 30 and The Unofficial Newlyweds’ Handbook.
"I hope I open doors for women who enter the field after me; I do as best as I can."
Read a restaurant review by Alexis Magner Miller
Read a story by Alexis Magner Miller