Elizabeth Ann BISHOP

  General Notes:

The Charleston Daily Mail, Charleston, WV, 21 May 1993

Noted Fashion Writer Griffith Dies

Ann Bishop Griffith, retired fashion editor of the Charleston Daily Mail, died early today at her home after a long illness. She was 70. Her journalistic career spanned 26 years, during which she chronicled the vagaries of the fashion world, reporting on the latest dictates of American and European designers as gathered at New York and Los Angeles showings. Griffith wrote thousands of feature articles focusing on local and national personalities, including West Virginia's first close-up look at Sharon Rockefeller. She also wrote a daily column. As a writer, Griffith excelled in word usage, often reworking phrases to have just the right punch and prompting co-workers to chide that she "gave birth to each and every word." When she was hitting her stride, Ann Griffith was one of the best newspaper writers anywhere," said Daily Mail Editor David Greenfield. "She could give writing lessons to a generation of feature reporters." Her talent and love of writing garnered many national awards. She received the JC Penney-University of Missouri Fashion Reporting Award in 1978 for a piece on the soaring costs of junior high school proms. She also won the 1974 Fashion Reporter Award-New York; the Dorothy Daw Award for home furnishings coverage and numerous awards in National Federation of Press Women competitions. On the state level, she was named West Virginia Woman of the Year in Communications, 1977; West Virginia Woman of Accomplishments, 1977; West Virginia Status of Women Award, 1977; and received the P. I. Reed School of Journalism Achievement Award, 1974, awarded by West Virginia University where she obtained a B.S. degree in journalism. She was a member of Village Chapel Presbyterian Church, a charter member of the West Virginia Press Women and past president of the Charleston Symphony Women's Committee, now the West Virginia Symphony League. Griffith was born in Scarbro. Surviving: husband, Roger D. Griffith, former owner of Trivillian's Pharmacy; daughters, Carolanne Roberts, of Birmingham, Ala., and Beth Griffith, of Richmond, Va.; sister, Carolyn Thornhill, of Glade Springs; brothers, William C. Bishop, of Sanford, N.C., Paul S. Bishop, of Birmingham, Ala.; one grandson. A memorial service will be conducted by the Rev. Frank Mansell at 11 a.m. Monday at Village Chapel Presbyterian Church in Kanawha City. Wilson Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. There will no visitation. The family suggests memorial contributions to the Bishop Memorial Scholarship Fund, co Alumni Association, Inc., P.O. Box 462, Oak Hill, 25901, or to Village Chapel Presbyterian Church or Kanawha Hospice Care.

Elizabeth married Roger Dale GRIFFITH on 18 Aug 1945 in Scarbro, Fayette Co., WV.³⁶⁸¹ (Roger Dale GRIFFITH was born on 26 Jan 1921 in Bluffton, Allen Co., OH ^55,74 and died on 3 Dec 2006 in Charleston, Kanawha Co., WV ^55,74.)