Elizabeth "Betty" McDougall, 93
COLUMBIA, MO (February 16, 2009) – Elizabeth "Betty" Jarden McDougall, the wife of University of Missouri emeritus journalism professor Angus McDougall, died in the early morning hours of February 13 in Columbia. She was 93.
In recent years she suffered from Parkinson's disease, family friend and journalism professor David Rees said, but the couple had decided to stay in their long-time Crawford Street home in Columbia.
In 2008 the McDougalls made a substantial gift to the Missouri School of Journalism to preserve for research and educational use the work of photojournalists, establishing The Angus and Betty McDougall Center for Photojournalism Studies.
She is survived by her husband of 70 years along with their daughter, Bonnie Latimer, and their son, Angus Craig McDougall, and four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Their daughter Lorna preceded her in death.
McDougall graduated from Carroll University summa cum laude in 1938 and soon thereafter married her fellow graduate and high school sweetheart from Waukesha, WI, Rees said. She often told people that it was her vocation to "teach her kids." An English major in college, she was an avid reader and according to friends and family she was "unbeatable" in Scrabble.
The McDougalls lived in Door County, WI, where he taught high school at Fish Creek and Shawano before moving to Wisconsin Rapids, where he taught for four more years. As her husband's career changed from teaching to photojournalism they moved back to Waukesha (when Angus worked for The Milwaukee Journal) and then on to Chicago (where he worked at International Harvester World magazine), landing finally in Columbia when Clifton Edom recruited him to head the photojournalism program at the University of Missouri's School of Journalism.
Betty assisted her husband in many of his professional projects, including recording the winners in the Pictures of the Year contest for the decade her husband directed the competition, and she typed one of his early books into a Radio Shack TRS-80 computer as technology shifted from typewriters to digital information.
When her husband retired in 1982 the couple remained in Columbia, where they were active in the community and she continued to garden, both flowers and vegetables. Friends remember that she planted tomatoes in a wheelbarrow, moving them to sunny locations around their wooded yard. They were known for their daily long walks as they continued to explore the community where they'd lived for so many years while also getting exercise.
Countless Mizzou photojournalism students will remember McDougall for her spirited conversation, her hospitality, and her ever-popular Salisbury Steak.
"This couple did so much for so many people related to photojournalism, I am really sorry to hear this sad news," photojournalist Enrique Shore said today. Today he works for Reuters in Madrid, Spain. "The last time I saw her was when she cooked a very nice dinner at their home for my farewell from Columbia. We have quite a debt to them."
There are no funeral services planned.
The family says that if friends are interested, in lieu of flowers they would appreciate memorial donations directed to The Angus and Betty McDougall Center for Photojournalism Studies.
Those who wish to send cards or letters may do so by writing to: Angus McDougall, c/o School of Journalism, University of Missouri, 109 Lee Hills Hall, Columbia, MO, 65211.
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