Elizabeth Morley Cowles

Elizabeth Morley Cowles Gale Ballantine (May 21, 1925 – October 10, 2009), Her grandfather, Gardner Cowles Sr., had bought The Des Moines Register in 1903; her father became vice president, general manager and associate publisher of the Des Moines morning and evening newspapers in the 1920s. and a lifetime member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She went on to study at Smith College, Stanford University, and the University of Minnesota. However, she did not earn an undergraduate degree until 1975, receiving her BA in Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. The couple had one son and two daughters. She also penned an advice column.

Ballantine became chairman of the board of the newspaper after her husband's death in 1975. She expanded the holdings of the family-owned publishing company with the acquisition of the Cortez Journal and the Mancos Times in 1999 and the Dolores Star in 2000. The Ballantines gifted more than $1 million to the Center in its first 40 years of existence. 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 both in her professional and philanthropic work. She wrote editorials promoting equal pay for equal work, workplace harassment, and pro-choice. She was a primary supporter of the Durango Clinic run by Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood, which awarded her its Margaret Sanger Award in 2004.

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 "to negotiate state treaties".

Ballantine was honored as 1990 Citizen of the Year by the Durango Area Chamber of Commerce 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.

Death Ballantine died of respiratory failure at her home in Durango on October 10, 2009, aged 84.