Tell, matriarch of newspapering family, dies

Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2000 | 10:36 a.m.

Beatrice Tell, the matriarch of a Nevada newspapering family that for 36 years has published the Las Vegas Israelite and once published the Las Vegas Free Press and Virginia City's Territorial Enterprise, has died. She was 85.

Tell died Tuesday in Las Vegas following a lengthy battle with kidney disease, her family said.

Services for the Las Vegas resident of 38 years will be 11 a.m. Thursday at Bunker Brothers Mortuary. Interment will be in Woodlawn Cemetery beside her husband, Jack Tell, a Las Vegas Sun court reporter of the early 1960s and co-founder of the Israelite, Nevada's English-language Jewish newspaper.

"Those who met Bea instantly were drawn to her laughter, her rare charm, her priceless, giving nature," said son Jay Tell, who published the Free Press in the 1970s and today is a rare coin and stamp dealer in San Diego. "She was the inspiration, the core, the heart and soul of our family."

Bea's duties at the Israelite included overseeing the advertising department.

Born Beatrice Goldstein on Aug. 25, 1914, she was one of six children of Russian-Polish immigrants Charles Goldstein, a shoe store owner, and his wife, Bessie.

In 1936 she married Jack Tell, who later was a New York Times photo editor.

In 1950 Bea underwent surgery for ileitis, and later helped form the Q-T Club, which today is a worldwide network of support groups for the afflicted.

In 1961 the family moved to Nevada and bought the Enterprise. The Tells moved to Las Vegas the next year. In 1964 the couple started the Israelite.

When Jack died in 1979, Bea's youngest son, Michael Tell, then a local rock concert promoter, took over as co-publisher of the Israelite.

In addition to her two sons, Tell is survived by another son, Don Tell, of Las Vegas; a brother, Sy Goldstein of Boca Raton, Fla.; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.