One very unique thing about Gunsmoke is that there was a period in time (1957-1965) where they had women writing the show. Women wrote about 70 episodes in that time. That's something unheard of then. Heck, for a show with Gunsmoke's demographic. Kathleen Hite wrote a lot of those episodes and she may be Gunsmoke's best writer in the history of the show.
Fred
As far as I know, there were many female writers in radio, especially for soap operas.
Hite wrote seven episodes of the Gunsmoke radio series, and other non-Gunsmoke scripts for Norman Macdonnell.
Whether she wrote the "best" is debatable. (Meston, of course, wrote the nastiest.) Several of her scripts suggest a strong sexual interest in the male characters.
She is one of only a handful of Gunsmoke writers that wrote more than 40 scripts, so there was something that they liked about her. She wrote my favorite episode, Long, Long Trail and also Chesterland probably within weeks of each other. Meston was very good too. Harpe's Blood is another episode that I really like. That season alone was incredible.
Fred
The problem with nominating any writer as Gunsmoke's "best" is that the overall quality of writing is so ridiculously high.
As a general observation, I note that the best episodes are those that put characters in situations of great importance to them. The two you mention are great, not because Kathleen Hite was a good writer (which she was), but because they're those sort of life-changing stories.
Gunsmoke is notable for sidestepping problems that afflicted so many TV dramas -- exaggerated emotion, talky dialog, conveniently "happy" endings, etc.
And let us not forget "David S. Peckinpah."
May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?
It was my idea that female writers wrote female-centric episodes, especially where Kitty was considered.
Why don't you go to the Wikipedia page of Gunsmoke episodes, and see what percentage of Kathleen Hite's scripts focus on Kitty? It'll take only a few minutes.
shareNot sure what your point is, but her episodes did not focus around Kitty anymore than any other regular character.
She wrote Chesterland and Commanches is Soft, too.
Fred