Carrie Mason-Draffen, longtime Newsday business writer, columnist, 72

Carrie Mason-Draffen, a business reporter and columnist at Newsday for 35 years, whose knowledge of workplace rights informed a generation of employees and employers, died on Monday at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center after a lengthy battle with small intestine cancer.

She was 72.

Mason-Draffen, who retired in 2019, was a beloved figure on Newsday's business desk. She served as an "otra mamá" or "another mother" to a newsroom of reporters whom she treated as her own, inviting them to her Freeport home for Thanksgiving dinner. She also established an office-wide Spanish club where journalists could speak their native, or adoptive, tongue while lunching on her signature flan and cinnamon rolls.

"She had such a unique, compelling personality," said Duayne Draffen, Mason-Draffen's husband of 40 years, who was hospitalized recovering from a kidney transplant when his wife died. "She was compassionate but not a pushover. She had a great sense of humor and a great sense of outrage when it was called for. She cooked wonderful gourmet dishes that any restaurant chef would have been proud of, but enjoyed a mess of down-home Gates BBQ in Kansas City as one of her final meals."

Mason-Draffen was born in Columbus, Ohio, to James Mason, a crane operator, and Mary Kay Mason, a homemaker. Through a blended family, she had 11 siblings.

She received a bachelor's degree in Spanish from Ohio Dominican University and masters' degrees from Ohio State and Binghamton universities, in journalism and Spanish, respectively. 

Mason-Draffen met her future husband while the two worked together at the now-defunct Commodity News Service in Kansas City. The pair relocated to Long Island in 1989 and had four children, Abeni Mason-Draffen, 31; Tyler Mason-Draffen, 30, both of Queens; and Griffin Draffen, 29, of California. The couple's first son, Philip, died shortly after birth.

"She was a very strong personality and was known to everybody for her love of cooking and her love of languages, particularly Spanish," Tyler Mason-Draffen said. "She had a love of information and was meticulous on the business desk getting information out of people."

Carrie Mason-Draffen joined Newsday in May 1984, covering the job market and employee rights. For 22 years, through her retirement, she wrote the syndicated Help Wanted column, answering workplace questions from employees and bosses.

Bob McGough, a former Newsday business editor, said while the column addressed highly technical, legal employment issues, Mason-Draffen was equally focused on workplace fairness and equality.

"She conveyed compassion for the situation that people were in," McGough said. "And at the same time, she was very painstaking about what people could expect legally and what could they not expect legally."

Mason-Draffen, who taught journalism for several years at Adelphi University, was the author of “151 Quick Ideas to Deal with Difficult People,” a book published in 2007.

While respected in the newsroom for her deep Rolodex of sources and thorough knowledge of the local economy, colleagues said it was her warm and caring demeanor that made Mason-Draffen special.

Aisha Al-Muslim, a former Newsday business reporter who is now with The Wall Street Journal, said she'll miss Mason-Draffen's "love for life. And she certainly knew how to live it. There was never a time when she was sitting around doing nothing."

Newsday business reporter Victor Ocasio recalled Mason-Draffen's concern that he not spend the holidays alone, often inviting him to share meals with her family.

"She was my mom in the office and professionally she was a wonderful mentor," Ocasio said.

Mason-Draffen is survived by her husband and three children, as well as brothers Larry Mason, 65, and Leon Mason, 55, both of Columbus, Ohio; sisters Joyce Hopewell, 82, of Columbus, Ohio, Brenda Kelsor, 70, of Northfork, West Virginia, Karen Brown, 60, of Van Wert, Ohio, and Carolyn Singleton, 80, of Neptune, New Jersey; brothers-in-law Tony Brown and Danny Singleton; and sister-in-law Marsha Mason.

Mason-Draffen's memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on Sunday at South Nassau Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Freeport.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.