 In 1937, at the height of the Great Depression, she left Knoxville and her husband (whom she later divorced) and headed to Manhattan despite the lack of any pre-planned prospects for work and wired her editor that she was quitting her job.In New York, she found a sequence of jobs with the "New York Post", the New York City Housing Authority, the "Associated Press" and the "New York World-Telegram and Sun", where she served as assistant editor for women's news.While at the World-Telegram in 1952, Asbury was elected President of the New York Newspaper Women's Club.