Elizabeth Morley Cowles Gale Ballantine (May 21, 1925 – October 10, 2009),
[ known as Morley Cowles Ballantine, was an American newspaper publisher, editor, philanthropist, and ]women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
activist. Scion of an Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...
n newspaper publishing family, she and her second husband, Arthur A. Ballantine, purchased two Durango, Colorado newspapers in 1952, which they merged into ''The Durango Herald
''The Durango Herald'' is a newspaper in Durango, Colorado. The first edition of the ''Herald'' came out June 30, 1881. Two years later, the ''Herald'' merged with the ''Record'', which had started publishing in 1880, seven months before the '' ...
'' by 1960. The couple also started the Ballantine Family Fund, which supported arts and education in Southwest Colorado
Southwestern Colorado is a region in the southwest portion of Colorado, which in turn is part of the larger Four Corners region. It is bordered by Western Colorado, Southern Colorado, the south portion of Central Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico.
C ...
. After her husband's death in 1975, Ballantine took over the chairmanship of the family-owned publishing company, continuing to produce a weekly column and editorials. She received many journalism awards and several honorary degrees. She was inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame in 2002 and was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame
The Colorado Women's Hall of Fame is a non-profit, volunteer organization that recognizes women who have contributed to the history of the U.S. state of Colorado. As of 2020, 170 women have been inducted.
History
There was a short-lived recogniti ...
in 2014.
Early life and family
Elizabeth Morley Cowles was born on May 21, 1925, in Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...
, the eldest of four children of John Cowles Sr.
John Cowles Sr. (December 14, 1898 – February 25, 1983) was an American newspaper and magazine publisher. He was co-owner of the Cowles Media Company, whose assets included the ''Minneapolis Star'', the '' Minneapolis Tribune'', the ''Des Moin ...
and his wife Elizabeth (née Bates). Her grandfather, Gardner Cowles Sr., had bought ''The Des Moines Register
''The Des Moines Register'' is the daily morning newspaper of Des Moines, Iowa.
History Early period
The first newspaper in Des Moines was the ''Iowa Star''. In July 1849, Barlow Granger began the paper in an abandoned log cabin by the junction ...
'' in 1903; her father became vice president, general
manager and associate publisher of the Des Moines morning and evening newspapers in the 1920s.[ In 1935, when her grandfather, father, and uncle Gardner Cowles Jr. bought '']The Minneapolis Star
The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolida ...
'', her father moved the family to Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
.[ Her mother was active in women's rights and civil rights, being the founder of the Planned Parenthood branch in Iowa and a lifetime member of the ]National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...
.[
]
Education
Elizabeth attended the Greenwood Elementary School in Des Moines. She went on to study at Smith College, Stanford University, and the University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
. However, she did not earn an undergraduate degree until 1975, receiving her BA in Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College
Fort Lewis College is a Public university, public Liberal arts education, liberal arts college in Durango, Colorado. Because of its unique origins as a military fort turned Indian boarding school turned state public school, FLC follows a 1911 ma ...
in Durango, Colorado.[
]
Marriages
In July 1944 she married Richard P. Gale Jr., a private in the United States Army.[ They had one son, Richard.][ Gale committed suicide in March 1946.][ In July 1947][ she remarried to Arthur A. Ballantine, a graduate of Harvard and ]Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
who was employed as a reporter for the ''Minneapolis Star and Tribune
The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolida ...
'' owned by her father. The couple had one son and two daughters.[
]
Newspaper editor and publisher
In June 1952 the Ballantines purchased two Durango-area newspapers, the daily ''Durango Herald-Democrat'' and the weekly ''Durango News'', and relocated their family to the city.[ By 1960 they had merged both publications into '']The Durango Herald
''The Durango Herald'' is a newspaper in Durango, Colorado. The first edition of the ''Herald'' came out June 30, 1881. Two years later, the ''Herald'' merged with the ''Record'', which had started publishing in 1880, seven months before the '' ...
''.[ Morley served as editor while Arthur managed the financial side of the newspaper;][ they worked at adjoining desks.][ Under their stewardship, the newspaper "championed educational and cultural causes and promoted progressive government".][ Ballantine wrote a weekly column as well as editorials which addressed both local and international issues, signing her columns with the initials "MCB".][ In some instances, she and her husband wrote opposing editorials, as during the ]1968 United States presidential election
The 1968 United States presidential election was the 46th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1968. The Republican nominee, former vice president Richard Nixon, defeated the Democratic nominee, incumbent vice preside ...
, when she endorsed Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...
and he endorsed Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
. She also penned an advice column
An advice column is a column in a question and answer format. Typically, a (usually anonymous) reader writes to the media outlet with a problem in the form of a question, and the media outlet provides an answer or response.
The responses are wr ...
.[
She was considered "progressive" for employing both men and women as advisors.][ Her connections as the scion of a prominent newspaper family afforded her broader contacts than would normally be available to a small-town publisher.][ She was photographed sitting beside President ]John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
at a 1962 luncheon for Colorado publishers and editors at the White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
.
Ballantine became chairman of the board of the newspaper after her husband's death in 1975.[ She continued to serve as editor,][ but passed on the duties of publisher to her son, Richard, in 1983.] She expanded the holdings of the family-owned publishing company with the acquisition of the '' Cortez Journal'' and the ''Mancos
Mancos is a statutory town in Montezuma County, Colorado, United States. The population was 1,196 at the 2020 census, down from 1,336 in 2010.
The town is in southwestern Colorado, at the base of Mesa Verde National Park, and holds the trademar ...
Times'' in 1999 and the '' Dolores Star'' in 2000.[
]
Philanthropist
The couple founded the Ballantine Family Fund in 1957.[ The fund supported non-profit organizations for the arts and education in ]Southwest Colorado
Southwestern Colorado is a region in the southwest portion of Colorado, which in turn is part of the larger Four Corners region. It is bordered by Western Colorado, Southern Colorado, the south portion of Central Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico.
C ...
.[ Its early grants included the development of Fort Lewis College from a two-year agricultural and mechanical college to a four-year college,][ and the establishment of the campus' Center of Southwest Studies with an initial donation of $10,000 in 1964. The Ballantines gifted more than $1 million to the Center in its first 40 years of existence.][ Other fund beneficiaries were the ]University of Denver
The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...
, the Fountain Valley School, the Durango Arts Center, and the San Juan County Historical Society.[ The fund has been operated by trustees since the Ballantines' deaths; in 2017 it awarded more than $300,000 in grants.
]
Other activities
Ballantine actively supported women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
both in her professional and philanthropic work. She wrote editorials promoting equal pay for equal work, workplace harassment
Workplace harassment is the belittling or threatening behavior directed at an individual worker or a group of workers.
Recently, matters of workplace harassment have gained interest among practitioners and researchers as it is becoming one of the ...
, and pro-choice
Abortion-rights movements, also referred to as pro-choice movements, advocate for the right to have legal access to induced abortion services including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their pr ...
.[ Unlike other Colorado publishers, Ballantine gave money as well as endorsements to women's political campaigns. She was a strong supporter of ]EMILY's List
EMILY's List is an American political action committee (PAC) that aims to help elect Democratic female candidates in favor of abortion rights to office. It was founded by Ellen Malcolm in 1985. The group's name is an acronym for "Early Money ...
, and also donated to the campaigns of women candidates in other states. She was a primary supporter of the Durango Clinic run by Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood, which awarded her its Margaret Sanger Award in 2004.[
]
Affiliations and memberships
In 1968 Ballantine became the first woman chair for the Colorado Associated Press Association.[ She was a founding member of the Women's Resource Center in Durango and the Women's Foundation of Colorado.][ Active in the League of Women Voters for more than five decades,][ she served on the state board of that organization from 1960 to 1965.][ She was a trustee of ]Simpson College
Simpson College is a private Methodist liberal arts college in Indianola, Iowa. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and has about 1,250 full-time and 300 part-time students. In addition to the Indianola residential campus, Simpso ...
, Fort Lewis College, and the University of Denver.[
Ballantine was a member of local arts and library boards, as well as state planning commissions, including the Anti-Discrimination Commission (1959–1961), the Colorado Land Use Commission, the state board for National Historic Preservation, and the state Commission on the Status of Women (1973–1975).]
Honors and awards
Ballantine received numerous journalism awards. Her first, in 1953, was a first-place prize from the Colorado Press Association (CPA) for an editorial supporting the right of the President of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
"to negotiate state treaties".[ She won five of the seventeen CPA awards received by ''The Durango Herald'' in 1956.][ Among the shared awards won by Ballantine and her husband was a 1967 outstanding journalism award from the University of Colorado School of Journalism.][
She received an honorary degree from Simpson College in 1980, an honorary doctorate from the University of Denver in 2002, and an honorary doctorate from Fort Lewis College in 2004, being the first woman to receive the latter degree.]
Ballantine was honored as 1990 Citizen of the Year by the Durango Area Chamber of Commerce[ and 2000 Colorado Philanthropist of the Year by the Governor's Commission on National Community Service and the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy.] She was the 2001 Arts and Humanities Honoree of the Bonfils–Stanton Foundation. She was inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame in 2002.
In 2007, the Durango Area Chamber Resort Association renamed its annual Athena Award as the Morley Ballantine Award.[ In 2014 Ballantine was posthumously inducted into the ]Colorado Women's Hall of Fame
The Colorado Women's Hall of Fame is a non-profit, volunteer organization that recognizes women who have contributed to the history of the U.S. state of Colorado. As of 2020, 170 women have been inducted.
History
There was a short-lived recogniti ...
.[
]
Death
Ballantine died of respiratory failure
Respiratory failure results from inadequate gas exchange by the respiratory system, meaning that the arterial oxygen, carbon dioxide, or both cannot be kept at normal levels. A drop in the oxygen carried in the blood is known as hypoxemia; a rise ...
at her home in Durango on October 10, 2009, aged 84.[
]
References
External links
"Morley Cowles Ballantine: Awards and editorials"
''The Durango Herald
''The Durango Herald'' is a newspaper in Durango, Colorado. The first edition of the ''Herald'' came out June 30, 1881. Two years later, the ''Herald'' merged with the ''Record'', which had started publishing in 1880, seven months before the '' ...
'', October 11, 2009
Ballantine Family Fund website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ballantine, Morley Cowles
1925 births
2009 deaths
20th-century American newspaper publishers (people)
American women business executives
Editors of Colorado newspapers
Fort Lewis College alumni
People from Des Moines, Iowa
People from Durango, Colorado
Philanthropists from Colorado
20th-century American businesswomen
20th-century American businesspeople
Women newspaper editors
20th-century American philanthropists