Journal Inquirer Publisher Elizabeth S. Ellis died Monday at 92 after a 53-year career at the newspaper during which she was a rarity in American journalism—a woman in charge.
In 1967, a year after the death from leukemia of their teen-age son, Jonathan, Ellis’ husband, Neil, a real estate developer with an interest in journalism, bought two weekly newspapers, the Rockville Journal and South and East Windsor Inquirer. Betty, as she was known, who had been working with mentally disabled children, went to work in the circulation department of the papers. The weeklies were merged into the daily Journal Inquirer in 1968 and she became assistant publisher in 1970 and publisher in 1973.
