Isabelle Keating Savell - (1905 – 1988)
Isabelle Keating Savell, was born in Pueblo, Colorado, in 1905. She received a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Colorado. As a journalism student, her news articles appeared in publications such as The Colorado Transcript and The Aspen Daily Times. In addition, while at CU she was one of several founders of a women’s press club for which she was the sports editor.
Isabelle came to Rockland in 1926 to accept a job as a reporter for the Nyack Evening Journal, an eight-page paper with an office on South Broadway in Nyack. The paper had three employees including the editor and Linotype operator, who doubled as a sports writer. Several days after her arrival, Miss Keating’s editor, a hard-drinking newspaperman of the old school, went on a bender and never returned. She not only became the editor but also swept the floors and kept the fire roaring in the potbellied stove.
In the late spring of 1927, she left to become a reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle, where she met and then married, Morton Savell, the paper’s Sunday editor. Isabelle also worked for the Associated Press and New York Herald Tribune, and joined the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College, teaching journalism.
A friend introduced the Savells to Snedens Landing, where they eventually lived. In 1939, the Savells built a house at 204 River Road in Grand View, where their two sons were born and raised.
Thirty years of public affairs began in 1945 when Mrs. Savell was appointed associated director of the New York State Joint Legislative Committee on Interstate Cooperation, and later as assistant to state Rep. Harold Ostertag. Mrs. Savell joined Nelson Rockefeller’s campaign in 1958 and served as his assistant press secretary until 1961. Nelson Rockefeller appointed her to the Workmen’s Compensation board in 1961, on which she served until retiring in 1973.
Isabelle Savell was the most versatile of writers. Her interest ranged far and wide from her own family saga, “Peter Dotson and the Saints,” the story of her family’s unhappy confrontation with the Utah Mormons, to four editions the history of the Executive mansion at Albany. Her prodigious output of historical books and articles for various organizations, newspapers and magazines, including The Historical Society of Rockland County’s quarterly history journal South of the Mountains, plus giving historical lectures, slide talks and serving on numerous committees have rarely been equaled in Rockland history. Her love of the county and the Hudson River placed her among the most eloquent of historians who have written of Rockland’s past.
“She would exhaustively research something that anyone else would give up on,” said John Scott, Senior Historian of the Society. “She was certainly one of the most energetic historians the society ever had and a prolific writer.”
Virginia Parkhurst, Nyack Village Historian, recalled her as “spunky, energetic and very, very bright. She seemed to write effortlessly. The miracle is the way she worked when she was getting frailer and frailer. She just worked her head off.”
Among the books written by Mrs. Savell and published by the Historical Society are Wine and Bitters, an account of Revolutionary War negotiations held at Tappan; Ladies’ Lib, about the woman’s suffrage movement in Rockland; The Tonetti Years at Snedens Landing, which showcased the history of a wealthy Palisades family; and Politics in the Gilded Age in New York State and Rockland County: A Biography of Senator Clarence Lexow. "They are the most important books we ever published,“ John Scott said.
Savell served as a trustee of the Society and, from 1977 – 1988, as Senior Historian. She was the recipient of many honorary awards, including a Doctorate of Human Letters from the University of Colorado. In 1985, she was one of seven recipients honored by Rockland Community College and the Rockland County Women’s Network with their Community Award for contribution to the community. The award was presented by Helen Hayes who said, “She does everything with gentility…with a touch of class.”
Savell had long been active in bettering the quality of life for fellow Rocklanders during her 62 years of living in Rockland County. In her later years, she was a founding member of the Tappan Zee Preservation Coalition, actively seeking to have the Hudson River shore from the New Jersey line to Hook Mountain designated as a state scenic area. On the eve of her death, while surrounded by family in 1988, Savell was told of her final project’s success: the state of NY agreed to designate Rockland’s Tappan Zee shore a "scenic area.”
"She was a lovely, brilliant, beautiful lady,“ said Gene Setzer of South Nyack. "She was one of the stalwarts, and one of the finest history researchers we’ve ever had around here-a beautiful writer so useful to the community.”
We are proud to feature Isabelle Keating Savell during 'Womens History Month!'
© The Historical Society of Rockland County, 2016 www.RocklandHistory.org
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