Bess W. Ball, business owner, marketing expert, community advocate, and volunteer, has died at 93

Bess W. Ball, 93, formerly of Philadelphia, founder of marketing and communications firm BG&R Associates, former copublisher and editor of Tri-State Minority Yellow Pages, business leader, women’s advocate, volunteer, and mentor, died Sunday, April 23, of complications after a fall at the Carlisle at Palm Beach assisted living center in Lantana, Fla.

Driven by her oft-shared motto: “Can’t was never in the vocabulary,” Mrs. Ball constructed a 38-year professional career that included the founding of the Philadelphia-based BG&R Associates in the early 1980s, and earlier positions as assistant director of consumer information services for Philadelphia Gas Works, coordinator for special projects at Campbell Soup Co., and director of public relations at Health Service Plan of Pennsylvania.

Before she retired in 2007, her marketing work at BG&R included award-winning public service announcements for the School District of Philadelphia and a public-relations campaign for the town of Atlantic Beach, S.C. that helped revitalize its economy and improve housing and neighborhood conditions.

On May 2, the South Carolina House of Representatives passed a resolution to “express their profound sorrow … celebrate her life, and extend the deepest sympathy to [Mrs. Ball’s] family and many friends.”

Her daughter, Gay Ball-O’Brien, said: “She was amazing and independent, a trailblazer, and ahead of her time.”

Mrs. Ball also earned business contracts with the Philadelphia Housing Authority, Community College of Philadelphia, CBS-TV, and other national and regional firms. She published her first Tri-State Minority Yellow Pages directory in 1988, and it became an invaluable tool in connecting consumers and others to businesses affiliated with women and minority owners.

“People don’t always know which businesses are minority-owned,” Mrs. Ball told The Inquirer in 1988. “This is the ultimate matchmaker.”

Adept at fundraising, obtaining grants, and forging alliances, Mrs. Ball served on the board of directors for more than two dozen organizations. She was interested in urban beautification and recreation, and was active as an adviser and mentor to program organizers and students at North Carolina Central University, her college alma mater, and West Philadelphia High School.

She served as president of the Philadelphia chapter of American Women in Radio and Television, now the Alliance for Women in Media, and became the first president to see her daughter hold the same position. She received many entrepreneurial and business awards, including from the Philadelphia chapter of the National Political Congress of Black Women and the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women.

She was inducted into the Philadelphia-based African American Legends Hall of Fame and, as a leader for the Experiment in International Living, organized youth exchanges that connected people around the world. She led Americans and others on goodwill tours of Europe and elsewhere and hosted people from South America, Japan, and Sweden in her Southwest Philadelphia home.

Mrs. Ball was featured in stories about her career and community activism by The Inquirer and other publications, and she shared a longtime family recipe for catfish stew in the 1970s and details of her activism in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood in 2001 with the Daily News.

“She could balance her wit and seriousness very well,” her son Richard said. “She was a great sales person.”

Bessie Woodbury was born Jan. 30, 1930, in Hemingway, S.C. She was raised in Marion, S.C., and worked at her parents’ grocery store.

She attended Morris Brown College in Atlanta, earned a bachelor’s degree in home economics at North Carolina Central University in Durham, attended graduate school at Temple University, and graduated from the Charles Morris Price School of Advertising and Journalism.

Expert at garment design and tailoring, she sold dresses and other clothing, hosted fashion shows, and modeled during her college years and when her children were young.

She married high school sweetheart Richard A. Ball in Philadelphia in 1955, and they had daughter Gay and son Richard II. They bought a home in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood in 1958, and she lived there until moving to Florida in 2021. Her husband died in 1993.

Mrs. Ball worked as a substitute teacher in Philadelphia when she was young. She was an avid golfer who often shot in the mid-90s, and she enjoyed traveling, reading, attending Broadway shows, and walking the beach.

“She was a beautiful human being,” her son said. “She reached out to people everywhere.”

Her daughter said: “She appreciated what the world had to offer.”

In addition to her children, Mrs. Ball is survived by a granddaughter, two great-grandchildren, a brother, and other relatives. A sister died earlier.

A graveside service is to be held at 11 a.m. Friday, May 12, at Jerusalem A.M.E. Church, 2557 Jerusalem Dr., Hemingway, S.C. 29554. A reception is to follow.

Donations in her name may be made to Trustbridge Hospice of Palm Beach County, 5300 East Ave., West Palm Beach, Fla. 33407; North Carolina Central University Alumni Association, 1801 Fayetteville St., Durham, N.C. 27707, and the Experiment in International Living, P.O. Box 6761 Kipling Rd., Brattleboro, Vt. 05302.