Renee Winkler McCarthy, 81, of Haddon Township, longtime prolific reporter for the Courier-Post, eclectic craftsman, antiquarian, and volunteer, died Friday, Sept. 12, of complications after gallbladder surgery at Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden.
Mrs. McCarthy joined the Courier-Post in 1966, fresh out of Temple University, and spent the next 42 years, until her retirement in 2008, writing thousands of news stories, features, reviews, previews, and columns about life and events in South Jersey.
She used the byline Renee Winkler and specialized in covering the courts and criminal justice system. But she also wrote about politics, business, education, zoning, cars, travel, food, healthcare, safety, religion, fishing, shopping, publishing, and other topics.
In 2004, she wrote 12 items, seven on one page, for a 10-page special section in the Courier-Post called “24 Hours in Haddonfield.” Newspapers.com archives report her name appearing in the Courier-Post more than 2,600 times between 1990 and 1999, and 2,400 times between 2000 and 2009.
Even in retirement, she wrote dozens of freelance stories for the Courier-Post about colonial gardens, homemade pasta, flowers, snow crab restaurants, the Franklin Institute, and other things. Her news writing style was direct, and she opened a 1966 story about a recent law school graduate by saying: “What does a law school student do after graduation? If the graduate is a him, he can start as a clerk in a law office and struggle through a year of breaking in. If the graduate is a her, and young and attractive, she has a problem.”
Her features were often about nature and family life. The Courier-Post published her story “10 Thing to Know About Fishing With Kids” in 2015, and she opened it with: “David Archie was spending a summer Sunday afternoon living the dream, giving a hands-on fishing lesson to his 5-year-old son Atum on the bank of Cooper River.”
She wrote about murder trials, organized crime, fatal car crashes, money laundering, police chases, labor movements, and all sorts of other public activity. A former South Jersey prosecutor said in a tribute: “Renee was smart, professional, and pleasant. She got our stories right and gave the community a true picture of our efforts to fight crime.”
Former colleagues called her “feisty,” “aggressive,” “completely honest,” and “trustworthy.” One said in a tribute: “No one could pull a fast one over her during interviews or court cases.” Another said: “Renee was a tough reporter with a kind heart. Working with her was a privilege.”
Her son, Brendan, said he often heard her typewriter clacking from the other room when he was growing up, and he enjoyed occasional visits to the old Courier-Post newsroom. “She was a social butterfly who could talk to anybody,” he said, “and she was fond of the South Jersey area.”
Before the Courier-Post, Mrs. McCarthy wrote for the Temple News as a student in the 1960s, worked part-time in the university’s public relations office, and earned a degree in business and communications in 1966. Arlene Notoro Morgan, a former reporter and assistant managing editor at The Inquirer, met Mrs. McCarthy at Temple and called her “a hard-hitting reporter who did not suffer fools.”
Outside the newsroom, Mrs. McCarthy and her husband, Jack, collected antiques, art, dishes, and sports memorabilia. She was an expert seamstress and adept at restoring furniture. They were regulars at flea markets and had a pickup truck just to haul old chairs and tables back to their house for repair.
She volunteered at the library, farmers markets, and elsewhere, and donated to and shopped often at thrift stores. “She remarkably and truly was one of a kind,” a friend said online.
Irene Helen Winkler was born June 14, 1944, in New York. Her family moved to Secane in Delaware County when she was young, and she graduated from the old Notre Dame High School in Moylan, Pa.
She met Jack McCarthy in Margate through mutual friends, and they married, and had a son, Brendan. They lived in South Jersey and Philadelphia, and had a place in Jim Thorpe, Pa., to be close to the antique world. She moved to Haddon Township in 2009 after her husband died.
Mrs. McCarthy enjoyed traveling and weekend getaways to Ocean City, N.J., and the Pocono Mountains. She joined book and breakfast clubs, and took classes at Temple and Camden County College.
She liked to cook and cuddle with her cat, and breakfast club friends called her Renee Sneakers because she wore a different pair practically every day. “She was a great mom,” her son said. “She was always there for me 100%.”
In addition to her son, Mrs. McCarthy is survived by her daughter-in-law, Sharon, two grandchildren, and other relatives. A brother died earlier.