Eldora Marie Bolyard Nuzum

Eldora Marie Bolyard Nuzum (1926–2004) was an American newspaper editor and journalist who interviewed several United States presidents. She was born in Grafton, West Virginia to Roy Everett Bolyard (1901–1983) and Georgia Ellen Deavers Bolyard (1909–1994). Eldora Nuzum started her newspaper career in the 1940s at the daily newspaper, The Grafton Sentinel. In 1946 she became editor at a young age of 20 years and served in that capacity for six years.

It was 1953 when Nuzum arrived at The Inter-Mountain, also a daily newspaper produced in Elkins, West Virginia (Ogden Newspapers Inc.), where she later guided that paper as editor for 32 years. Upon her retirement in 1992, she was named Editor Emerita until her death in 2004.

Born in Grafton, West Virginia to Roy Everett Bolyard (1901–1983) and Georgia Ellen Deavers Bolyard (1909–1994), Eldora Nuzum (1926–2004) had three siblings, two sisters and one brother: Vonda Jean Bolyard Norris wife of Clyde Dale Norris; Robert Glen Bolyard husband of Jacqueline Louise Westfall Bolyard; and Dr. Cassandra B. Whyte wife of William Rowland Whyte, Jr. Eldora and Jack Nuzum had two sons, Jefferson Patton Nuzum husband of Carrie Gould Nuzum and Jon Cedric Nuzum husband of Diane Raszkowski Nuzum, and two grandchildren, Lydia Ann Marie Nuzum and Derek Warren Nuzum.

Eldora Nuzum was the wife of Judge Jack Robert Nuzum (1921–1998) who was also born in Grafton, West Virginia. He served as Circuit Judge of Randolph County in West Virginia and was a two-term state legislator representing Taylor and Randolph counties in the West Virginia Legislature, as well a being a law partner of former West Virginia Governor Herman G. Kump.

Throughout her years in the journalism field, Eldora Nuzum served as a mentor for many young reporters and interviewed U.S. Senators, Governors, and U.S. Presidents, beginning with a whistlestop tour interview with President Harry S. Truman on October 16, 1949, at Grafton, West Virginia as he passed through town by train. She interviewed former President Truman again in 1962 at the Mountain State Forest Festival in Elkins, West Virginia. Her White House "Invitation Only" interview with President Jimmy Carter on December 1, 1978 is on record during an era when a small number of news representatives from various areas of the country were asked to visit the White House as part of his press program. She was one of a few females interviewing leaders during that era as the doors were opening to female journalists. That interview is recorded as part of The American Presidency Project.

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