Eldora Marie Bolyard Nuzum

ELDORA MARIE BOLYARD NUZUM, the first female editor of a daily newspaper in West Virginia, departed this life at her home on August 20, 2004 after a long illness. Mrs. Nuzum had been Editor Emerita of the Elkins Inter-Mountain daily newspaper since 1992 after serving as editor of that paper for over three prior decades. She was born May 10, 1926 in Grafton, West Virginia, the daughter of the late Roy Everett Bolyard and the late Georgia Ellen Deavers Bolyard. She was preceded in death by her husband of fifty years, Randolph County Circuit Judge Jack Robert Nuzum. Judge Nuzum served in the West Virginia House of Delegates representing Taylor and Randolph counties. Jack Nuzum was a law partner of former Governor Herman Guy Kump and Cyrus Kump, in the firm of Kump, Kump and Nuzum. After their deaths, his firm was titled Nuzum and Smith. Eldora Nuzum was preceded in death by her brother, Robert Glenn Bolyard of Bridgewater, Virginia and her sister, Vonda Jean Bolyard Norris of Ridgeley, West Virginia. Surviving are her sons, Jefferson Patton Nuzum and wife Carrie Nuzum, Valley Bend, and Jon Cedric Nuzum and wife Diane Nuzum, Elkins. Her surviving sister is Dr. Cassandra Bolyard Whyte and husband William R. Whyte, Jr., of Cross Lanes, West Virginia, a sister in law, Jackie Bolyard of Bridgewater, Virginia and a brother in law, Clyde Norris of Ridgeley, West Virginia. She is also survived by her grandchildren, Lydia Ann-Marie Nuzum and Derek Warren Nuzum, both of Valley Bend. Several nieces and nephews survive including Rick Norris, Jon Robert Bolyard, Michelle Bolyard Wescott and Jennifer Whyte Onks. Her great nieces and nephews surviving include Christopher Norris, Lauren Kate Wescott, Isabelle Bolyard and Thomas Onks. Mrs. Nuzum received many honors during her lifetime. She was named Distinguished West Virginian by Governor Gaston Caperton and will be listed as the first female editor of a daily newspaper in the state in the West Virginia Encyclopedia to be published soon by the WV Humanities Council. Mrs. Nuzum was the Outstanding Woman in Business honored by the West Virginia Women�s Commission in 1987. She was also the first female President of the Press Editors of West Virginia. She received several awards such as Outstanding Business Woman of the Year by the Beta Alpha Beta of Davis and Elkins College, Citizen of the Year in 1976 from the Elkins Jaycees, and the Masthead Award from the West Virginia University School of Journalism in 1968. Over the years she served in leadership capacities for various organizations to include the Randolph Chapter of the Cancer Society, President of the Junior Women�s Club of Elkins, and President of the Newcomers Club of Elkins. Until 2000, she was Secretary of the WNPB-TV Public Broadcasting Advisory Board in Morgantown. Paul Harvey recognized her efforts to rebuild the Elkins Newspaper after it burned to the ground in 1974. He offered his radio newscast presentation about �The Newspaper that Wouldn�t Die.� Eldora Nuzum interviewed three Presidents of the United States during her working tenure to include Presidents Nixon, Carter and Truman. She was invited to the White House three times. Mrs. Nuzum was the only female editor at the first invitational press conference. Also, Eldora Nuzum interviewed President Harry S. Truman on a famous whistle-stop train tour through Grafton, West Virginia. She interviewed him, seated in a passenger seat across from him. Mrs. Nuzum was a member of the First United Methodist Church at Elkins The family will receive friends at the Lohr & Barb Funeral Home of Elkins from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 PM, Tuesday. Final Rites will be conducted at the funeral home chapel, Wednesday, August 25, 2004 at 11 AM with the Reverend Doctor Ellis E. Conley officiating. Graveside Services will be held at 1:30 PM, Wednesday at the Woodsdale Memorial Park at Grafton, West Virginia. The Lohr & Barb Funeral Home of Elkins is in charge of the arrangements for ELDORA MARIE BOLYARD NUZUM. Sympathy expressions may be made to: www.lohrbarbfuneralhome.com