Betty Knight Scripps

LA JOLLA, CA —

Betty Knight Scripps, Philanthropist and Newspaper Chain Publisher, Dies at 95

Betty Knight Scripps, who with her late husband Edward Wyllis Scripps, built a national newspaper publishing company and later became a prominent philanthropist, supporting education, medicine, and the arts across the country, died on July 21 in La Jolla, Calif. at age 95.

Following their marriage in 1950, Mrs. Scripps and her late husband grew Scripps League Newspapers from a small regional newspaper company into a national publishing chain of 51 newspapers. Scripps League, independent of the media empire started by Mr. Scripps’ grandfather E.W. Scripps, successfully focused on small to medium-sized markets. It included newspapers like the Daily Herald of Provo Utah, The Napa Valley Register, the Arizona Daily Sun, and the Newport (Vt.) Daily Express.

In 1996, Mrs. Scripps negotiated the sale of Scripps League Newspapers to Pulitzer Publishing Company. She took great pride in the timeliness of that decision to sell in the early years of the Internet, before it challenged the profitability, and even the viability, of many newspapers.

After the sale of Scripps League, Mrs. Scripps was an active investor in oil and gas drilling in her father’s native state of West Virginia. Into her 80’s she showed her characteristically hands-on management approach by riding ATV’S through rugged terrain to tour all of her wells. She also started Appellation Magazine, based in Napa, California, that covered the world of wine.

Mrs. Scripps for many decades was a prominent philanthropist. Both personally and through the Edward and Betty Knight Scripps Foundation, Mrs. Scripps supported numerous educational, cultural, and medical institutions, including Yale University, the University of Virginia, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (funding the Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony for new citizens), the Washington National Opera, Scripps Health, and the Mayo Clinic, where she established three professorships in cardiology and clinical medicine.

Her pride in her philanthropy was matched by her joy in a great party. So, for many years, Mrs. Scripps served as chair and underwriter of elegant, signature annual fundraising events such as the Washington National Opera Ball, the Scripps Hospital Candlelight Ball, and the Red Cross Ball in Palm Beach.

Mrs. Scripps was born in Denver, Colorado and raised in Hillsborough, Calif. Her parents were Eleanor Maynard, of San Francisco, and Cecil Howard Knight, an executive with the Firestone Tire and Rubber Co., whose family had for many generations lived in Doddridge County, West Virginia. In recent years, she resided at homes in: Charlottesville, VA; Palm Beach, FL; Lyford Cay, the Bahamas; and East Hampton, NY, ultimately returning to her California roots in Rancho Santa Fe, CA.

Mrs. Scripps is survived by her son, Barry Howard Scripps, and seven grandchildren. Another son, Edward Wyllis Scripps III, predeceased her.

At Mrs. Scripps request, there will not be a memorial service.

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