Veteran Newswoman Vi Murphy, 63

BAKERSFIELD â€”  Vi Murphy, a veteran newswoman who was one of the first journalists jailed for refusing to reveal a source, has died of cancer. She was 63.

Mrs. Murphy, who recently lived in San Diego, died Sunday at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, where she had been undergoing treatment for lymphoma cancer, her daughter, Susan Murphy, said Monday.

Mrs. Murphy was a newspaper reporter for 30 years, beginning her career in Colorado. She worked for the Denver Post and later the Gazette Telegraph in Colorado Springs.

In the summer of 1960, she wrote a series of stories on judicial corruption in the Colorado Springs court system. One of the judges called her before the bench and asked for sources and documentation. When she refused to divulge them, she was held in contempt of court and jailed. She was imprisoned for 30 days and made the cover of Life magazine that year.