Wynn Hubler Speece - known affectionately to the world as "The Neighber Lady" - is still a fixture on Yankton radio and one of the community's most recognized citizens.

Wynn Speece has worn that label -- an almost accidental nickname she acquired from a small role she once played in a radio soap opera -- for more than 60 years. But it helped make her one of the most recognized and respected Midwestern radio personalities of the last half-century.

And she has also been one of Yankton's most beloved citizens.

She was born Winifred Hubler and grew up in Marshalltown, Iowa. She worked on a theater degree at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and did some on-mike radio work at station KRNT. She subsequently tried to break into the radio ranks in the media mecca of Chicago, but her deep voice and young age made her an inappropriate radio personality -- at least in the minds of Windy City radio executives.

She returned to Des Moines and landed a small job at Des Moines' powerful WHO radio station. While there, an old friend from her Drake days, Art Brown, told her he was leaving his post in the continuity department at WNAX in Yankton and urged her to apply for the job. She did and won the spot.

Her career at WNAX began with a decided lack of glamour. She was stationed in a small back room with a Heinz 57 box for a filing cabinet.

She eventually worked her way from the back room to the studio, performing in a pair of western soap operas. Then Phil Hoffman, the station manager of WNAX, gave her a 15-minute Saturday morning program to promote specials offered by WNAX advertisers. The program, "Ways to Win with Wynn Hubler," offered a new path for her, and she never looked back.

Thereafter, Hubler was named the station's women's director and her show was expanded to six 15-minute programs a week. It debuted at 4:30 p.m. on July 14, 1941.

Hubler picked up her famous nickname from one of the soap operas in which she had played. One of the characters always referred to Hubler's character as "the neighbor lady," and the name stuck.

Hubler married Harry Speece in 1945, and soon Wynn Speece became a household name to radio listeners throughout the Midwest and parts of Canada. For thousands of listeners, her show was a staple of the day. Her warm, ad-lib style struck the right chord -- and it still continues to do so today.

She also writes a weekly column for the Press & Dakotan.

Speece has received numerous honors and awards through her long career, including the prestigious Marconi Award for small-market broadcasting.

She has also been the subject of a book, "The Best of the Neighbor Lady," by M. Jill Karolevitz.

Certainly not to be overlooked is the fact that Speece has become one of Yankton's most visible and outgoing ambassadors and spokespersons. She and her husband Harry served as Riverboat Days Captain and Belle in 1986.

Speece is still active in many community activities including her first love, theater.

She was honored as Yankton's Citizen of the Year in 1991.