MANCHESTER, Conn. (AP) - Elizabeth Ellis, the longtime publisher of the Journal Inquirer in Connecticut, has died. She was 92.
The award-winning journalist died Monday after leading the newspaper for nearly 50 years, the Journal Inquirer reported.
Ellis’ husband, Neil, bought two weekly newspapers, the Rockville Journal and South and East Windsor Inquirer, in 1967. Betty, as she was known, went to work in the circulation departments.
The two weeklies eventually merged into the daily Journal Inquirer a year later. Ellis became the publication’s assistant publisher in 1970 and rose to the publisher role in 1973.
She oversaw the newspaper’s expansion, growing from coverage of five towns from a base in a garage building to coverage of 18 towns in an industrial building in Manchester.
Ellis was a rarity as a female publisher.
“She was never intimidated by state politics or other newspapers or sports on a grand scale,” said Phil Chardis, the Journal Inquirer’s former assistant sports editor.
Her awards included the Yankee Quill Award of the New England Newspaper and Press Association in 2000. The newspaper also won the group’s Newspaper of the Year award in 1987.
Before going into news, Ellis worked with children with intellectual disabilities. She attended Pembroke College, the women’s college at Brown University, where she majored in philosophy.
Survivors include her husband; two daughters, Deborah Ellis and Abigail Bellock; and grandchildren. A teenage son, Jonathan, preceded her in death in the 1960s.
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