Louise D. Stone, former DN opinion writer, art enthusiast

LOUISE DAVIS STONE will always be remembered for her elegance, eloquent prose and commitment to the arts.

"She was always elegant in every way, her dress, her attitude," said Richard Aregood, Daily News public editor. "She was a class act."

Stone, who wrote opinion pieces in the Daily News from the late '70s until the early '90s, died Tuesday at age 79.

She more recently served as director to the North Carolina Department of Labor, Publications Division, and once she retired she worked on projects for nonprofit arts groups.

Although Stone left the City of Brotherly Love for North Carolina, she continued to be involved in the art scene here.

"She didn't let the distance from the city separate her commitment to the art organization," said Daily News columnist Elmer Smith. "She had a wry sense of humor."

Stone was a board member of the Brandywine Workshop, at Broad and Fitzwater streets. Smith said she continued to attend meetings traveling from North Carolina and even edited the organization's first collection catalog.

When the Freedom Theatre was celebrating its 25th anniversary at the Annenberg Theater in 1991, her then-husband, Chuck Stone, legendary Daily News columnist and the first president of the National Association of Black Journalists, wrote: "Louise is the artistic authority in our family. Her observations seem felicitously appropriate as Freedom Theatre celebrates a shining quarter-century of exalting the art of make-believe."

Stone grew up in Hampton, Va., and graduated from Colby College in 1953. She attended the New York School of Social Work at Columbia University for a year of graduate work. She then went on to a career in advertising, publication production, editing and writing.

Her witty-yet-vibrant writing style painted pictures for readers almost as much as her personality.

"Her walls were packed with lively original art that was as colorful as she was," said Signe Wilkinson, an editorial cartoonist for the Daily News. "Chuck Stone wasn't the only big personality in that house."

Stone was the oldest daughter of the late Collis Davis and Billie Davis. She is survived by her daughters, Krishna and Allegra Stone, and son Charles S. Stone III, a film director best known for movies the Drumline and Paid in Full. She also leaves behind a grandchild, Parade Diosa Stone; sisters Thulani Davis and Jennie Davis Brown, and a brother, Collis H. Davis Jr.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Ave., Montgomery, Ala., 36104.