In 1983, she became editor of the Christian Science Monitor in Boston, Massachusetts, becoming the first woman to edit an American national newspaper.
[3] After college, she returned to Illinois and soon met Marshall Field IV, heir to a large publishing business.
In 1963, Fanning, then Kay Field, decided to obtain a divorce from her husband (who died shortly afterwards) and after a difficult two years, she quit drinking, taking sleeping pills and tranquilizers, and resumed her study of Christian Science, which she had first come to know as a child.
Her early experience writing at the paper gave her a wide variety of assignments and topics, from dog sled races to tragedy to controversies, such as birth control.
Larry Fanning came to investigate the possibility of purchasing the Anchorage Daily News, the owners of which were nearing retirement.
Both Kay Fields and Fanning grew interested in the idea, and though the financial prospects did not look good, they were not dissuaded,[6] seeing the public service possibilities of the newspaper, wanting to provide an alternative voice and feeling that it would become a family venture involving her children, as well.
[8] Fanning stayed at the Anchorage Daily News until 1983, when she moved to Boston to work at the Christian Science Monitor and became the first woman to edit an American national newspaper.