Daphne Lowell Dailey (2 October 1912–3 October 1995), journalist, was born in Madison County, Arkansas, and was the daughter of Ozzie L. Dailey and Ada Jane Mullins Dailey. She graduated from high school in Fayetteville and in 1932 received a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Arkansas. Dailey pursued graduate studies in English and history at that institution until 1934. While a student she worked at the university newspaper and later as a reporter for the Fayetteville Daily Democrat. From 1934 to 1936 Dailey taught journalism at a high school and junior college in Fort Smith, Arkansas, where she met Clara Margaret Payne, with whom she later formed a business partnership.

In July 1936, after Payne secured a divorce, she and Dailey moved to Caroline County, Virginia, and purchased the weekly Bowling Green newspaper, the Caroline Progress. Dailey edited the paper, Payne was business manager, and the latter's son Howard Allen Payne served as publisher. They also purchased Tappahannock's weekly, the Rappahannock Times, but sold it in 1938. In November 1936 Dailey and Clara Payne bought the Quantico Sentry (later the Quantico Marine Sentry), the newspaper circulated at Marine Corps bases throughout the world, and published it until July 1944.

As editor of the Caroline Progress, Dailey began to make her mark locally with editorials that encouraged and initiated change within the county. In 1939 Washington and Lee University's Lee Memorial Journalism Foundation and the Virginia Press Association honored her with the Lee Editorial Award for distinguished writing and service to the community. Throughout the previous year Dailey had run a sometimes controversial series of editorials that called for the county to establish a public health unit, a goal accomplished in 1941. Dailey strongly opposed the United States Army's plan to locate a new training facility in Caroline County, in part because the proposed 110,000-acre camp would displace hundreds of residents and encompass about a third of the county's territory, including most of its best farmland. Once Camp A. P. Hill had been established in June 1941, however, Caroline Progress editorials encouraged readers to accept the army's decision and provided free advertising to farmers selling their land.

Throughout her years at the Progress, Dailey continued to make outstanding contributions to journalism. Her editorials commented on a variety of issues, ranging from federal programs, national elections, and international collaboration by the United States to such local concerns as support for the Red Cross, the War Fund, and the construction of a cannery. Other editorials chided local officers and boards for their inability to plan appropriately for Caroline County's future. In 1943 the Virginia Press Association presented Dailey with an award for outstanding editorial leadership in weekly newspapers. The following year the organization recognized her persistent community involvement and her emphasis on providing the best in local news with its Distinguished Service Award. Dailey chaired the VPA's Legislative Committee from 1943 to 1944. She became a vice president in July 1944 and was unanimously elected the first female president of the press association in July 1945. During her one-year term the association instituted a program of inviting foreign journalists to work temporarily with Virginia newspapers and to report on life in America.

Dailey and Payne sold the Caroline Progress in the autumn of 1947. Two years later Dailey began working for the Bank of Virginia as the director of advertising and public relations. In 1962 the bank named her a vice president. Maintaining residences in Richmond and Bowling Green, Dailey was active in the community affairs of both localities. She volunteered with the Caroline County American Red Cross and served on the board of directors for the Richmond chapter. During World War II, Dailey chaired the Caroline County Junior Red Cross and the public information committee of the Caroline County War Fund. She served as the first female president of the Richmond Public Relations Association during the 1952–1953 term. In 1968 the governor appointed Dailey to the Advisory Committee on Emergency Medical Services. She wrote two histories, The First Seventy Years, 1902–1972: A History of Union Bank and Trust Company (1972) and Queen Caroline (1981).

Dailey never married and had no children. In 1985 she returned to her native state. On 3 October 1995 Daphne Lowell Dailey died in Springdale, Arkansas. She was buried at Fairview Memorial Gardens, in Fayetteville.

Sources Consulted:
Biographical information in Richmond Times-Dispatch, 20 July 1941 (several portraits); Daphne Dailey Papers, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; other publications include Dailey, "The Bank of Virginia," Virginia and the Virginia County 6 (July 1952): 18–19; Quantico Sentry, 24 Nov. 1936; Richmond News Leader, 26 Jan. 1940, 29 Jan. 1945; Richmond Times-Dispatch, 28 Jan. 1945, 18 Sept. 1962; Commonwealth 7 (Feb. 1940): 18; ibid. 12 (July 1945): 17; Virginia Press Association Bulletin 25 (Feb. 1943): 6; ibid. 27 (Feb. 1945): 1, 12; ibid. 27 (July 1945): 1, 8; ibid. 28 (Feb. 1946): 12, 21; ibid. 28 (Sept. 1946): 6, 10–11; ibid. 29 (Oct. 1947): 7; obituaries in Bowling Green Caroline Progress and Fayetteville Northwest Arkansas Times, both 11 Oct. 1995.

Written for the Dictionary of Virginia Biography by Cassandra Britt Farrell.

How to cite this page:
Cassandra Britt Farrell,"Daphne Lowell Dailey (1912–1995)," Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia (1998– ), published 2006, rev. 2019 (http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Dailey_Daphne_Lowell, accessed [today's date]).

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