Lloyd "Skip" Shearer (December 20, 1916 – May 27, 2001^[1]) was an American celebrity gossip columnist. From 1958 to 1991, he wrote "Walter Scott's Personality Parade" in Parade magazine.^[2] In this column he used the name Walter Scott, and discussed rumors about celebrities using a question-and-answer style.^[1] Shearer also wrote profiles of famous people under his real name.^[1]

Career

Shearer began writing in high school.^[3] He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,^[1] and in 1936 he graduated with a bachelor's degree in the English language.^[3] His first job was for the Durham Sun in North Carolina.^[3] In 1941, Shearer was drafted into the Army.^[1] When the military magazine Yank was established, Shearer joined the staff in New York City.^[1][3] Later, he was transferred to Los Angeles where he wrote for Armed Forces Radio, as part of the Pacific Theater division. He also became a correspondent for The New York Times while still serving in the Army and after serving, until 1953.^[3] Then he became the West Coast correspondent of Parade, then starting his "Walter Scott's Personality Parade" column in 1958.^[1] Shearer retired from writing the column in 1991, due to Parkinson's disease.^[3]

Life

Shearer was born in New York City on December 20, 1916.^[1] Shearer's parents had immigrated from Austria, and his father worked as a typesetter. The neighborhood where Shearer was raised was described as "working class".^[3]

Shearer married fellow writer, Marva Peterson. They had three children: Derek, a former U.S. Ambassador to Finland, and twins Cody and Brooke. Lloyd Shearer died of a heart attack at his Los Angeles home on Thursday May 27, 2001.^[1]

Shearer was mentioned in the 1942 best-selling book about a journalist's experiences in military service, See Here Private Hargrove. From that exposure Shearer was said to have "gained some notoriety".^[3]