Elisabeth Donovan Masellis
Dec. 9, 2008 - From complications and treatment of lung cancer. Survived by her loving husband Joseph Masellis, mother Charlotte, brother Thomas, brother Alan (Avie), brother Brian (Kim), step-sons Michael and Mark, nephews Benjamin, Eli, Joseph, Gregory, Grant, Jordan, and David, neices Kerry, Tasha, Shambray, Amanda, and Kimmie. Predeceased by her father Thomas, and sister-in-law Patti. Liz was survivor of polio at age 6 and became valedictorian of the Wayne Central Class of 1963. She attended Marymount College in Tarrytown, NY and received a degree in Political Science. She spent a year studying at the London School of Economics. As a young news researcher at the Washington Post, she worked with reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and located a key piece of information which tied the bail money for the Watergate burglers to the Committee to Reelect the President. Escaping busy Washington for a time in the late 70's, she moved to Black Mountain, NC and opened a health food store. Then in the early 80's she moved to Miami and become News Research Manager for the Miami Herald. There she continued in the work she had done at the Washington Post, and with the advent of the Internet Age, she helped modernize the Miami Herald Research Library. Personally, she also took an active interest in the internet, developing a personal web page, a web page of research links for professional news researchers, and blogging. She had one of the first news weblogs at the Miami Herald. In 1999 she was part of a team of people from the Miami Herald to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting. In 2004, she retired and with Joe moved to Murphy, NC. Here she continued her many interests, cooking, gardening, knitting, photography, and weblogging. A diagnosis of cancer did not slow her down much, as she posted some articles to weblogs a day or two before being hospitalized.