[2] Applegate spent a year with the Lansing State Journal, before receiving her masters of science degree from Northwestern University in 1942, where she was on scholarship.
As many men were serving overseas during World War II, she had the opportunity to take a "durational appointment" with the Associated Press (AP); she became the second woman to work at its office in Detroit in May 1943.
The following year, she was asked by Governor Kim Sigler to be his press secretary, after he noticed her court reporting while he was serving as the special grand jury prosecutor.
Applegate began working as a feature writer, where she conducted interviews with public figures including Judy Garland, Richard Nixon and Madame Chaing Kai-shek.
She wrote a popular series of articles on the local African American community, for which she won a number of Florida Women's Press Association Club awards.
She taught classes about reporting, magazine writing and media law,[7] being promoted to associate professor of journalism and mass communications in 1974.