The Papers of Ellen V. Nash (1953-1990)

Ellen Virginia Nash (Eenie) was born in Omaha, Nebraska on 20 May 1910. Prior to 1932 she spent several years in Paris with her aunt Frances Nash Watson, where she studied at the Ecole du Louvre and the Sorbonne. She moved to Charlottesville in 1945. All her life she had an interest in public service. In the 1930s, she began to work with the Civil Works Administration (later WPA). A few years later, she became Assistant to the General Counsel of the Federal Workers Agency, as political liaison with Capitol Hill, a position she held until she enlisted in the Armed Services (the WACS) during World War II. She earned a pilot’s license in 1945 at the Milton Airport in Shadwell. She was member of the official Sign Ordinance Committee that seek to develop guidelines to protect Albermarle County's scenic places. She was a member of the Democratic party and served on the County Electoral Board from 1973-1979.

She was active in politics beginning in 1952 “Rising through various posts to be one of the three Albermarle County Electoral Board members.” After her graduation as the sole woman of her law class, she was one of the first women to practice law on Charlottesville Court Square, and was elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Charlottesville-Albermarle Bar Association fifteen times. Nash served as Scottsville’s representative on the Albermarle Board of Supervisors from 1980-1984. “She would say things that were so frank and so correct, they would turn the head of her five fellow supervisors. In addition to her frankness, politics to her really was people.” (Daily Progress, June 29, 1995)

Ellen V. Nash was an active member of the Charlottesville-Albermarle community. She was member of the Albermarle County Historical Society and the local SPCA, where she served as president when they were constructing the animal shelter and their offices. She was president of the Levy Opera House/Town Hall Foundation (1977), [Nash, Box 18], board member of the Southside Health Center in Esmont, chairman of the Scottsville Democratic Committee and Supervisor for the Scottsville District since 1980 (Daily Progress Aug. 17, 1979) and president of the Charlottesville-Albermarle Civic League.

Nash died at age 85 at her home in Kenwood on June 28, 1995.

These papers were transferred to the Law Library from Alderman Library in January of 1998.

Series I (boxes 1-23) is comprised of case files and law practice ledgers dating from 1953-1990.

Series II (1955-1988) is comprised of a small body of personal papers such as documents concerning her campaigns for Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, her work at the Levy Opera House, and her efforts to settle a complicate estate.

Nash's folder headings and numbers printed in folders have been noted on the new folders. Both series are arranged alphabetically.