Jeanne B. Bellamy

BELLAMY, JEANNE, also known as Jeanne B. Bills, who scored several firsts in Miami newspaper work and civic life, died March 21, 2004 at age 92. As a reporter, Ms. Bellamy achieved two world scoops. The first dealt with the arrival of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in Nassau during World War II. Ms. Bellamy had written her report in advance and airmailed it to The Miami Herald. As soon as the procession ended, she telephoned last-minute details. All other reporters in Nassau for the event found the airwaves glutted with wartime messages and did not get their stories out until the next day. Her second scoop was attained from a sickbed when she learned that the Duke of Windsor, then governor of the Bahamas, would fly the next morning from Dinner Key in Miami to meet President Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard a warship in the Gulf Stream nearby. During her 36 years on the staff of The Miami Herald, Ms. Bellamy became the first woman reporter to cover local government and courts, the first woman acting city editor, the first woman writer to serve in the Washington Bureau. She also served as a foreign correspondent and as a member of the editorial board. Her overseas assignments included Colombia, Mexico, Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas and England. She was the senior editorial writer when she took early retirement from The Miami Herald at the end of 1973. She left to accept election as Chairman of the Board of Midtown Bank of Miami. In 1977, she was elected the first woman chairman of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce continues to memorialize Ms. Bellamy through the annual awarding of a cash prize to women in Miami-Dade County who exhibit entrepreneurial accomplishments. She also became the first woman member and chairman of the Miami- Dade Water and Sewer Authority. She resigned from the local authority in 1979 to accept appointment to the governing board of the 16-country South Florida Water Management District. She served for five years as President of Fairchild Tropical Garden, 10901 Old Cutler Road, Coral Gables, FL 33156 and remained a member of its Board of Trustees and a Trustee Emeritus. In 1984, the garden gave her its Thomas Barbour medal "for vision, unselfish devotion to the preservation of that vanishing Eden, South Florida." She served for four years as President of the Montgomery Botanical Center, 11901 Old Cutler Road, Coral Gables, FL 33156 and remained a member of its Board of Directors. Ms. Bellamy was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on November 15, 1911. Her father was from Barbados. Her mother was born in India. Her maternal grandfather had gone from England to India to be headmaster of an English Boys' School at Madras. He also wrote editorials for The Madras Mail, and, when Ms. Bellamy learned this at age eight, she decided on a career in journalism. She attended public schools in Gainesville and Orlando. On being graduated from Orlando High School at age 16, she was awarded the Good Citizenship Cup, the school's highest honor for a graduating senior. Ms. Bellamy attended Barnard College, New York City, in 1928-29. Her father's illness caused her to leave Barnard. Then, she worked for a year in the Orlando Public Library. The late Dr. Alfred J. Hanna, Professor of Florida history at Rollins College, persuaded her to finish her college studies there. Rollins alumni elected her to represent them on the college's Board of Trustees 1977-80. Ms. Bellamy also served six years as trustee of Biscayne College, now St. Thomas University, which had given her an honorary Ph.D. in journalism. She served on the Board of the National Audubon Society 1963-69. For two years during the 1960s, Ms. Bellamy not only worked full-time for The Miami Herald, but also hosted a daily five-minute radio commentary and a half-hour television program each Sunday evening called, "We Want to Know." Her work for all three media twice brought her the Florida Bar's annual award for contributing to the understanding of America's system of justice. She also was given a national award for conservation writing and the Jose Marti Journalism Award. She was a member of the Montgomery Botanical Center, the Fairchild Fellows, Greater Miami Opera, Historical Association of Southern Florida, Dade Heritage Trust, the Fine Arts Center, The Society of Woman Geographers, the Vizcayans, the Coral Gables Country Club, the Biscayne Study Club, Brickell Avenue Literary Society, the Lowe Art Gallery, Kappa Alpha Theta and the Episcopal Chapel of the Venerable Bede. She was the widow of John T. Bills, former business and real estate editor of The Miami Herald and co-founder with Tully F. Dunlap of Midtown Bank of Miami and the Bank of Coral Gables, now the Midtown and Coral Gables offices of Sun Bank of Miami. He died in 1967. Ms. Bellamy leaves one surviving brother, Thomas H. Bellamy of Sebring, Florida, and was preceded in death by her brother, Donald L. Bellamy, late of Coral Gables, Florida. Visitation 6-8 PM Friday at VAN ORSDEL CORAL GABLES. Services will be at the Chapel of Venerable Bede, University of Miami campus, at 12 noon, Saturday, March 27, 2004. In lieu of flowers, she left a request for donations to either Montgomery Botanical Center or Fairchild Tropical Garden. VAN ORSDEL - CORAL GABLES 4600 SW 8 St (305)446-4412 Family Owned Since 1924 To visit this Guest Book Online, go to www.herald.com/obituaries.