Her stewardship helped Cox grow into one of the nation’s largest media companies and providers of automotive services, with holdings that include 17 daily newspapers, 80 radio stations, 15 TV stations, a leading broadband communications company and the world’s preeminent provider of used vehicle services, marketplaces and publications.

The Cox family has owned the company for 108 years. Throughout her involvement in the business Mrs. Anthony was a strong proponent of reinvesting profits to expand and strengthen operations to ensure sustained growth.

The Early Years

Mrs. Anthony’s perspective was shaped by a colorful early life, which ranged from weekend chores on the family’s Ohio farm to encounters with some of the most prominent figures of the day. She was born in Dayton, Ohio, where her father founded his company as the owner and publisher of the Dayton Daily News. She traveled with him frequently as his newspaper holdings expanded to Atlanta and Miami.

Mrs. Anthony’s father, James M. Cox, was elected governor three times and, in 1920, was the Democratic nominee for president; his vice-presidential running mate was a young Franklin D. Roosevelt. Two decades later FDR, now president, visited the Cox home, known as Trailsend. “I sat with Daddy and the president and listened,” she said. “It was wonderful. Daddy always asked everybody questions and President Roosevelt was the first person I ever heard who could answer all of them.”

Five years later, as the young widow of a Navy pilot, Mrs. Anthony was selected as the “sponsor” of the USS Midway, christening the world’s largest and most powerful warship at the time and one that would play a prominent role in the Vietnam War. An account of the ship’s launch in Newport News, Virginia reveals her intense spirit as she unleashed a champagne bottle. “Like a golfer addressing her ball, she paused, reared back, and flung bottle into the bow. White foam exploded across the hull…”

A Strong Business Sense

Mrs. Anthony’s close relationship to her father fostered a keen interest in the business and the sense of the responsibility inherent to owning media properties. Following her father’s death in 1957, day-to-day management of the company was entrusted to close family members – her brother, her husband and her son. Mrs. Anthony’s relationship with each helped to shape the direction of the company.

Her brother James M. Cox Jr., who led the company from the time of his father’s death until his own in 1974, was known as a careful, conservative businessman; Mrs. Anthony even described him as “tight.” She later recounted how she had to convince her brother to overcome his fear of debt to buy several important media holdings in the 1960s.

After her brother’s death and her husband’s chairmanship, the reins of leadership were passed in 1988 to her son, Jim Kennedy, who with her guidance has led the company through an unprecedented period of rapid growth and diversification.

Kennedy found himself in the unique position of reporting to both his mother and his aunt. Mrs. Anthony marshaled her motherly instincts to dispel a potentially awkward situation. She shared her knowledge and support -- talking often with her son about the business -- and she exercised her will.

Displeased that his mother was smoking on a flight to Hawaii, Kennedy jokingly asked her to stop. “It’s a company plane, and it’s against policy,” he said.

To which she coolly replied: “Yes, but it’s my company.”

Though she never held a day-to-day position within Cox Enterprises, Barbara Cox Anthony was anything but an absentee owner. Until her death, Mrs. Anthony was chairman of the corporation that publishes the Dayton Daily News and served on the board of directors of Cox Enterprises.

Until her recent illness, Mrs. Anthony never missed a Cox board meeting. David E. Easterly, retired president of Cox Enterprises and a former president of Cox Newspapers, recalled that she was a very quick study on issues before the board.

“Even though she hadn’t actually worked in the business, she had a very solid understanding of the business and a remarkable ability to get to the heart of an issue,” Easterly said. “I spent the better part of 15 years presenting quarterly to her and the board and she was really a dynamite performer on the big issues. She never let us forget the need to do the ‘right things’— fair and honest reporting in the journalism arena and honesty and integrity in our business dealings.”

Several associates recalled that Mrs. Anthony delighted in asking penetrating questions at Cox board meetings, sometimes catching executives off guard.

James O. Robbins, retired president and CEO of Cox Communications, the broadband communications company, said she usually did so in good humor and with a twinkle in her eye. “I put in a lot of time getting ready for my board presentations, but Mrs. Anthony could fire off a question on any of our businesses that you couldn't prepare for if you had 100 years to get ready,” he said. “We always knew she was on top of the businesses.”

Arthur M. Blank, 13-year Cox Enterprises board member, Home Depot co-founder and owner & CEO of the Atlanta Falcons added, “Mrs. Anthony was a phenomenal woman whose spark and business savvy will be missed. I will always remember the undivided attention she gave her son ‘Jimmy’ at board meetings and the way she supported the direction he was taking the Company. The connection between the two of them was something special to behold, yet even Jim couldn’t sway her when she stood her ground. She understood the big issues and challenges of the industry but had no patience for corporate ‘baloney.’ Mrs. Anthony’s family, friends and the industry have suffered a great loss. We will all miss her.”

A Life of Ranching

Ironically, Mrs. Anthony spent most of her adult life thousands of miles away from Cox’s Atlanta headquarters at her Hawaii home immersed in another successful business that combined her love of the islands, the outdoors and animals. She served as chairman of the Hualalai Ranch board, overseeing all aspects of a 7,500-acre ranch on the slopes of Mount Hualalai. As with her other businesses, Mrs. Anthony always was looking for expansion ideas and executing them shrewdly.

The ranch began as a cattle operation in 1960 and is home to top-quality purebred Santa Gertrudis and crossbred cattle produced for market and for breeding. In 1975, Mrs. Anthony diversified to include production of exotic African protea flowers, which are cut and sold in Hawaii and throughout the United States and Japan. In 1999, the ranch began growing high-elevation, no-pesticide coffee and today is one of the largest volume coffee farms in the Kona coffee belt area.

Anthony also was a frequent visitor to Australia, where her daughter resides, her daughter’s children were raised and where she chaired Winderadeen Corp., which operates two large commercial ranches covering 30,000 acres with 2,500 breeding cows, as well as sheep and purebred quarter horses.

The Winderadeen Quarter Horse Stud is one of Australia’s best known, producing multiple champions at the Royal Sydney Show.

A Low-Key Approach

Although frequently named one of the world’s wealthiest people and the co-owner of a large, highly visible company, Mrs. Anthony managed to maintain a low public profile. Never a celebrity, she shunned limousines whenever possible. She delighted in the fact that she could fly by private plane into Sydney and walk unnoticed past the gathered paparazzi who were looking for the more famous media owner, Rupert Murdoch, who used the same airport facility.

Low profile, however, never meant low intensity. Indeed, Mrs. Anthony loved competition, particularly athletics. She enjoyed “competing in anything that resulted in someone being declared a winner,” said her son. She especially enjoyed tennis and equestrian events. She even competed in rodeos while spending summers at the family ranch near Stanley, Idaho.

Once, when attending a convention of newspaper publishers in Atlanta, she soundly defeated Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham on the tennis court. Her son asked her why she was so tough on Graham. “Kay would have done the same thing to me, if she could,” Anthony told her son. She continued to play tennis and snow ski until her late 70s.

Sharing Wealth with Others

Mrs. Anthony’s low-profile style extended to her philanthropic interests. Though she routinely gave half of her income to charity, she preferred to make private donations directly and anonymously to organizations whose causes she embraced. These included a medical center for children and scholarship programs in her hometown of Dayton. She also was equally generous to her adopted home state, where she supported a host of community causes.

She was one of two founders and board chair of La Pietra-Hawaii School for Girls in Honolulu. Ed Keyes, currently the finance director of the school, knew Mrs. Anthony from the early days of the school. "What a wonderful lady," Keyes said. "If she weighed 100 pounds, the first 99 would be all heart."

He said that Mrs. Anthony’s generosity to the school not only made its founding possible, but that her continued support has been vital to the school’s scholarship and financial aid programs. “We serve a diverse community with 235 students and 44 percent of them receive direct financial aid,” he said. “She was deeply involved here and I don’t believe she ever missed a year of handing out diplomas to our graduates.”

Naturally, Mrs. Anthony’s love for animals surfaced in her giving. She funded a chair at Colorado State University dedicated to the study and treatment of equine orthopedic disorders. This program also seeks advanced human orthopedic treatments. Another grant to the Colorado school endows a chair at the Animal Cancer Center, which works collaboratively with other agencies addressing human forms of cancer. Mrs. Anthony also served on the boards of the World Wildlife Fund and Santa Gertrudis Breeders International. Her generosity will continue through the Barbara Cox Anthony Foundation, which focuses on education, health, human services and community development.

“Barbie always said that she inherited her mother’s outlook on life which was sunny and happy,” said Carl R. Gross, retired senior vice president of administration, former board member of Cox Enterprises and long-time friend. “This certainly came through in her charitable works, but also in the way she lived her life. She was a confident woman, who was always comfortable with herself. She felt very blessed by her circumstances and expressed her appreciation by making the most out of every endeavor.”

In addition to her two children, Barbara Cox Anthony is survived by her sister, five grandchildren and four stepchildren.

A memorial service honoring Mrs. Anthony will be held at La Pietra-Hawaii School for Girls in Honolulu on June 9. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in memory of Barbara Cox Anthony to the La Pietra School for Girls, 2933 Poni Moi Road, Honolulu, Hawaii, 96815.