Ernestine Breisch Powell was born Tuesday, February 6, 1906 in Moundsville, West Virginia .
she died Friday, May 23, 2003. her recorded age was 97.
POWELL Ernestine Breisch Powell, Lawyer, Newspaperwoman, Aviatrix, Wife and Mother died Friday, May 23, at Friendship Village of Dublin. Born in Moundsville, W.V. on February 16, 1906 to Ernest Elmer Breisch and Belle Wallace, she was 97. One of 11 children, Ernestine applied a strong work ethic, putting herself through high school and night law school, to become a prominent lawyer in Ohio. She practiced law in Dayton and then Columbus where she specialized in charitable foundation law. She wrote the book How to Become and Remain a Tax Exempt Foundation. She was appointed Special Prosecutor for the Franklin County Probate Court in the Battelle Memorial Foundation case and was Editor in Chief of the Women Lawyers Journal for 2 years. She was nominated for a Federal Judgeship during the Kennedy administration in 1961. In the twenties, while studying law, she wrote for the Dayton Journal, where she created a column about the Soldiers Home. After passing the bar in 1929 she continued to write for the paper developing the nationally syndicated column Judge Experience. Always considering herself a newspaper person first, she published a small weekly newspaper in Columbus, The Sharon Spectator, in the late fifties. An early activist in the women's rights movement in Ohio, she become Chairman of the National Women's Party in Washington, D.C., and was the personal lawyer for Alice Paul, the author of the Equal Rights Amendment. During World War II she was on the Speakers Bureau of the Red Cross and gave speeches on the war effort throughout the state. In the 1970s she was invited to be in Who's Who in America and the World and has remained there ever since. She had a lifelong passion for aviation and was one of the first licensed women pilots. In Dayton she flew her Hess Baby Warrior Biplane and was a member of the famous "99ers", the women's flying club. She and her husband, tax lawyer Roger K. Powell (dec.), established the firm of Powell and Powell in Columbus. She practiced law there until 1986. She is survived by her son, Bruce W. Powell of Columbus; her daughter, Diane Powell Dax of New York; plus 3 grandchildren, David and Deborah Powell and Ariel Delacroix Dax. There will be a graveside service at Walnut Grove Cemetery on Monday, June 2, at 10:30 a.m. Monsignor John Cody officiating. Friends are welcome. Instead of flowers, the family suggests a donation to the Sierra Club. Arrangements by EGAN-RYAN FUNERAL HOME.