Patricia Bozell; cofounded Catholic journal
WASHINGTON - Patricia Buckley Bozell, who was a matriarch of a prominent conservative family and helped start Triumph, an opinion journal of Catholic orthodoxy, died July 12 at her home in Washington. She was 81 and had throat cancer.
Ms. Bozell was born into a Catholic family whose fortune originated in Central and South American oil fields. Among her nine siblings were the late William F. Buckley Jr., who founded the magazine National Review, and James L. Buckley, a former US senator in the Conservative Party from New York.
She married L. Brent Bozell Jr., a National Review editor with whom she launched Triumph in 1966. The magazine lasted nearly a decade and, as the second-in-command editor, Ms. Bozell helped shape its voice against legalized abortion and in favor of the traditional church in response to Vatican II changes.
Among her 10 children was L. Brent Bozell III, who began a conservative watchdog group, Media Research Center.
Ms. Bozell was less public than many in her family, but in March 1971 she attracted media attention in a confrontation with radical feminist Ti-Grace Atkinson at a Catholic University forum.
Before an audience of 800, Atkinson said the Virgin Mary was more "used" than if she had participated in a sexual conception.
"I can't let her say that," Ms. Bozell yelled, as she ran toward Atkinson and tried to slap her. Her hand struck a microphone.
Afterward, Ms. Bozell told The
Patricia Lee Buckley was born April 23, 1927, in New York City and raised in Sharon, Conn., and Camden, S.C.
After receiving her early education abroad, she graduated from the private Nightingale-Bamford School in New York.
She received her bachelor's degree from Vassar College in 1948 and married Bozell the next year. The marriage was at times complicated by Brent Bozell's manic depression, diagnosed in the early 1970s. He died in 1997.
Since 1982, she had been a freelance editor at Regnery Publishing as well as National Review, American Spectator magazine, and Communio: International Catholic Review.
With James R. Whelan, she was the coauthor of "Catastrophe in the Caribbean: The Failure of America's Human Rights Policy in Central America" (1984).
Her memberships included the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Washington and the Cosmos Club. She was a longtime patron of the Washington Bach and Folger consorts as well as Shakespeare Theatre.
She leaves six sons, L. Brent III of Alexandria, Va., William of Prescott, Ariz., James of Hagerstown, Md., Chris of Houston, John of Soria, Spain, and the Rev. Michael of Solesmes, France; four daughters, Kathryn Brewster of Somers, Conn., Maureen of Alexandria, Aloise of Denver, and Patricia of Washington; two brothers; two sisters; 24 grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren.
