Stanley Scott, New Orleans businessman, ex-White House aide, wills estate to wife and papers to Ford Library - Obituary

Stanley S. Scott, New Orleans businessman and journalist who served as White House aide to former Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, willed his wife Bettye the bulk of his estate and left a "special legacy" for the world to remember him by when he died at 59 of cancer last April (Jet, April 20, 1992).

After examining his last will and testament, JET learned Scott stipulated in his will that his wife Bettye was to have "full ownership, all right, title and interest in and to any and all automobiles, boats, books, pictures, household furniture and belongings, jewelry and miscellaneous personal effects."

However, he designated, "As a special legacy, I leave all of the personal papers of which I die possessed connected with my years at the White House to the Gerald Ford Library in Grand Rapids, Mich."

A Lincoln University journalist graduate, Scott began his career as a reporter at the family-owned newspaper, the Atlanta Daily World. He enjoyed a stellar career in journalism (he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his radio broadcast of the assassination of Malcolm X) and once owned one of the nation's leading beer distributorships in New Orleans, which had yearly sales of more than $50 million.

But the high point of his professional life was probably the time he served in White House positions. He was named a news deputy during Nixon's first term and was promoted to special presidential assistant during Nixon's second term in office. During the Ford administration he was named an African regional administrator for the Agency for International Development.

In his will, which was drafted nine months before his death, Scott bequeathed four condominiums located in Atlanta to his wife and their three children, Stanley Jr., Kenneth and Susan. Scott named his wife and friend, Dr. Norman Francis, president of Xavier University in New Orleans, to carry out the terms of his will. He specified that if Francis was unable to serve in that capacity "then I name Samuel DuBois Cook (Dillard University president) to serve as co-trustee with my wife, Bettye, or my daughter, Susan."

Furthermore, the documents indicate Scott left $63,000 in cash to family and friends. He left his sisters, Doris Lake and Clinora Turner $25,000 each; cousin Ester Circiello, $10,000; cousin Melaine Simons, $1,000; his secretary, Donna Guilliot, $1,000; and housekeeper Rose Williams, $1,000. No other dollar amounts were put on Scott's assets.