Obituary: Agnes 'Aggie' Ash, former Palm Beach Daily News publisher, dies at age 99

Former Palm Beach Daily News publisher and lifelong reporter Agnes Ash died March 22 at age 99, her family said.

Mrs. Ash, known as "Aggie," was a voracious reader and prolific writer whose passion for the written word took her from the Dayton Daily News, to the Washington Times-Herald and Atlanta Constitution, then The New York Times and The Miami News, and finally to Palm Beach.

She was known for being precise and fair, dedicating more than four decades of her life to journalism.

"On a newspaper you're creating a new product every day, so your triumphs are kind of short-lived, but so are your tragedies," Mrs. Ash said in a 1991 Palm Beach Post article about her retirement.

"She was a brilliant reporter and fearless writer, a loving wife and mother and a gregarious force for good," said Ellen Koteff Uribe, who worked with Mrs. Ash for 13 years at the Palm Beach Daily News.

Joyce Reingold, who succeeded Mrs. Ash as publisher of the Palm Beach Daily News, said her predecessor was a trailblazer.

"She helped raise the profile of the paper internationally, making the Shiny Sheet almost a password that guaranteed access to even the most reclusive interview subjects," Reingold said.

A path to Palm Beach

Mrs. Ash was born Nov. 14, 1924, in New York City. She grew up on a New Jersey farm owned by her parents, Olga and Mathew Paul McCarty, and in Indiana, according to a detailed recollection of her life shared with the Daily News by her family. Mrs. Ash's love of reading developed as a girl and she spent a lot of time at the library, where at age 12 she borrowed a copy of "Gone With the Wind" that she eagerly read under the covers on her bed, her family said.

After high school, her family moved to Dayton, Ohio, and Mrs. Ash in 1948 became first a city desk clerk and then a reporter for Dayton Daily News after a brief stint at Sinclair College.

Her first assignment was a local-news stereotype, to cover a firefighter who rescued a cat from a tree. She turned the article "into such a vivid cliff-hanger that her editor advanced her on the spot," her family said.

"When I competed for a story, I just competed against the world," she said in the 1991 article about her retirement.

In addition to finding her profession in Dayton, she also found the man who would become her husband: Clarke Ash, a World War II fighter pilot and graduate of the University of Dayton.

In 1951, Mrs. Ash became the diplomatic beat reporter for the former Washington Times-Herald. She then was women's editor for the Atlanta Constitution.

In 1954, she made a major jump to The New York Times, where she was a features writer. Her work there earned her journalism awards including an honor from the Newspaper Women's Club of New York.

She and Clarke Ash married in 1956 and had an apartment on Central Park West.

In 1959, Mr. Ash was named the associate editor of The Miami News, and Mrs. Ash joined him there, where she became the first female business editor of a major newspaper, her family said.

While at the Miami News, Agnes Ash wrote a syndicated column for the New York Herald-Tribune, interviewing major players in American arts and culture and breaking stories that made hers one of the most-read bylines in the U.S.

After the birth of their fourth child, Mrs. Ash left the Miami News to be the Florida bureau chief for Fairchild Publications, with her work appearing in W and Women's Wear Daily. She also volunteered at and helped to support the quarterly student newspaper for The Cushman School, which her children attended.

The family made their way to Palm Beach County in 1976, when Clarke Ash became the editor of The Palm Beach Post's Editorial page and Mrs. Ash became the publisher of the Palm Beach Daily News and the accompanying Palm Beach Life.

The couple moved into a home at 249 Via Linda in Palm Beach, according to the announcement.

In the coming years, Mrs. Ash would be credited with turning the Shiny Sheet from what then was largely a society newspaper to one that covered hard news and took a newsier approach to the social pages. Among the policy changes she made, Mrs. Ash stopped a longstanding practice of buying pictures from society photographers who also charged their clients for the images. She hired photographers who worked for the paper and began to build an in-house photo archive.

Her daughter Jennifer Ash Rudick, whose own work as a writer and filmmaker has documented the lifestyle and culture of Palm Beach, recalled stopping by the Shiny Sheet newsroom on her way home from school at the Rosarian Academy in West Palm Beach.

Rudick would sit on the floor of the newsroom, leafing through images as her mother worked toward deadline or took meetings.

Mrs. Ash had an open-door policy that all were welcome, and many took her up on that, from those who worked for her to those who lived and played on the island she covered, Rudick said.

"It was a training ground because it was a local newspaper, but they had access to world leaders," Rudick said of the Palm Beach Daily News at the time.

Growing up in Palm Beach was wonderful, Rudick said, noting that her parents had moved twice — from New York City to Miami, and then from Miami to Palm Beach — while looking for the best place to raise their family.

"It was a small town of civic-minded people, and that's how my mother always thought of it, too," she said.

Mrs. Ash appreciated the fundraising work done by the society members the paper covered, Rudick said.

"She wanted the newspaper to take what was happening in this town seriously, and yet my mother never took life too seriously," she said.

An example of that approach to life: Mrs. Ash worked with the town to allow all of the newspaper's boxes on the island to be painted pink.

'Comfortable in any setting'

Mrs. Ash loved the town and spent most nights out, showing her passion for well-made things — a passion that extended into her pride for her own work — through her signature Valentino skirts, her family said.

Her love of fashion extended back into her early career. As a features writer for The New York Times, Mrs. Ash was the first to interview Yves Saint Laurent during his first visit to New York City, Rudick said. As Ash interviewed the up-and-coming designer who was building his global fashion house, she noticed that he kept looking out the window.

Realizing that he would be tied up in interviews for more than a day, Ash offered to drive the designer around New York City — and he accepted.

She became friends with some of the designers she covered, including Hubert de Givenchy, who once sketched a wedding dress for Rudick on a napkin at The Colony Hotel.

Mrs. Ash celebrated fashion in her writing and what she wore, choosing sweeping Yves Saint Laurent skirts, simple Valentino sweaters — Rudick recalls one that had two large tulips on it — and Valentino skirts with applique flowers.

"She was comfortable in any setting — from racetracks to the salons of the world's greatest clothing designers," Uribe said.

Uribe recalled visiting the Ashes for the first time at their Palm Beach home, where the walls were filled with Haitian art. "I expected more traditional pieces, bowls of fruit or watercolors of vases filled with flowers, but it brought a big smile to my face knowing that Aggie was anything but predictable."

Leading news coverage

Mrs. Ash's time at the Palm Beach Daily News placed her on the island during a time that included coverage of some of the biggest stories Palm Beach has ever seen, including a political dynasty: the Kennedys.

In a 1999 article marking the death of John F. Kennedy Jr., Mrs. Ash told The Palm Beach Post that she recalled that Jacqueline Kennedy was not particularly fond of the island. "The place was very sparsely furnished and I don't think they even had air conditioning," Mrs. Ash said.

She recalled family matriarch Rose Kennedy with an amusing story she shared with The Palm Beach Post in 2013: "She had impeccable clothes, beautiful clothes," Mrs. Ash said. "But she only had one coat, not fur. It was a very nice coat, but she would come in, and the photographers always took her picture. And one day as she was coming in, she took off the coat and handed it to me. She would have handed it to whoever was there.

"'Well, you know,' she said, 'I can't change my coat all the time, and I don't want my picture taken in the same thing,'" Mrs. Ash continued.

President John F. Kennedy didn't spend too long in Palm Beach once he was in office, Mrs. Ash recalled in another 2013 Palm Beach Post article.

More: 60 years later, JFK's memory lives in Palm Beach

"It was too much of a hassle," she said. "The road going by the house was very difficult for the Secret Service. There was no place to park, and it was a hard place to secure. The ocean was on one side, and then there was A1A at the curve."

Life after the Shiny Sheet

Agnes and Clarke Ash retired in 1991 — and her first step was to earn her bachelor's degree in English from Barry College (now University) in Miami. About a year earlier in 1990, they sold their house at 249 Via Linda, property records show.

"I don't feel any different than the day I walked into the Dayton Daily News," Agnes Ash said at her retirement. "I just look different."

They moved to Vero Beach, where Mrs. Ash served on the board of the performing arts center, while Mr. Ash joined the board of McKee Botanical Gardens. They would spend the summer in Carmel, California, where Mrs. Ash moved at age 84 after Clarke died in 2011.

After several years on the west coast, she moved back to Palm Beach County in 2016 to be closer to her family, which at the time included her children and a growing number of grandchildren.

"She was very good with her grandchildren," Rudick said, noting the humor and wisdom her mother shared with her family. "She just encouraged them to follow their dreams."

Survivors include children Dave Jones (Lynn) of Merritt Island, Eric Ash of West Palm Beach, James Ash of Tallahassee and Jennifer Ash Rudick (A. Joseph) of New York City; grandchildren, Jennifer Jones King, Adam Jones, Ryan Ash, Michael Ash, Tom Ash, James Ash, Eleanor Ash, Clarke Ash Rudick, Amelia Ash Rudick, Emily Ash and Caroline Ash; two great-grandchildren, Margot Ash and Mika Ash-Meyer; her brothers, Al and John McCarty; and cousin, Martha Clarke.

She was preceded in death by her sister and brother, Sandy and Eric McCarty.

A private funeral Mass for Mrs. Ash was held at St. Edward Roman Catholic Church in Palm Beach on Sunday. There will be no further services.

Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at kwebb@pbdailynews.com. Subscribe today to support our journalism.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Obituary: Agnes Ash, former Shiny Sheet publisher, dies at age 99