{"id":3404,"date":"2026-06-27T22:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T22:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=3404"},"modified":"2026-06-27T22:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T22:35:13","slug":"julia-daniels-a-champion-of-art-and-culture-married-to-no-publisher-has-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=3404","title":{"rendered":"Julia Daniels, a champion of art and culture married to N&O publisher, has died"},"content":{"rendered":"

AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.<\/p>\n

Read our AI Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

Julia Jones Daniels, the \u201cprofessional volunteer\u201d who led dozens of arts, history and museum groups across North Carolina, and who formed one half of Raleigh\u2019s best known power couple while married to News & Observer publisher Frank Daniels Jr., died Saturday.<\/p>\n

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She was 94.<\/p>\n

For decades in Raleigh, Daniels either led or raised funds for Raleigh\u2019s cultural scene, especially the N.C. Museum of Art, helping it to expand, helping it realize the uniqueness of its 164-acre campus and choosing and paying for the signature steel tree sculpture near the front entrance.<\/p>\n

She chaired the North Carolina Historical Commission when it approved the Vietnam War memorial on the Capitol grounds, showing a wounded soldier being carried out of the line of fire \u2014 still a hallowed place for veterans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were clearly a power couple in terms of their commitment to the causes and institutions they were involved with,\u201d former N&O Executive Editor Frank Daniels III said of his parents, \u201cbut in every institution Mom got involved with, she ended up being the chairman or the president. She was just super organized and focused and gracious. If she was going to get involved with something, she was going to be all in. She was a masterful fund-raiser and ran meetings like a general.\u201d<\/p>\n

A resume listing every position she held and committee she served on would stretch for pages, from president of the Junior League to co-chair of the North Carolina Balloon Corp., a nonprofit that sought to build and fly hot-air balloons to represent the state at festivals nationwide.<\/p>\n

Her longtime husband, Frank Daniels Jr., late publisher of The N&O<\/a>, called her a \u201cprofessional volunteer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe got attention by being the ultimate host and consummate entertainer,\u201d said Larry Wheeler, former NCMA director and self-described \u201cpartner\u201d of Daniels. \u201cShe had the taste, the style, the touch, and it was very hard for anyone ever to say no to Julia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in New Bern, Daniels moved to Raleigh in 1945 with her family when her father relocated the center of a lumber mill business. She finished Broughton High School, which was then a small institution in a small state capital, compared to the 2,000-plus school that still operates near downtown.<\/p>\n

After graduating, she attended Converse College \u2014 now university \u2014 in Spartanburg, South Carolina. There, she rose to student body president and earned degrees in English and elementary education.<\/p>\n

Julia Jones returned to teach fourth grade at Frances Lacy School in Raleigh until she married Daniels in 1954 \u2014 just as he was rising through the ranks of his family\u2019s newspaper, then published by his father.<\/p>\n

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They had met at Broughton, and the Daniels family laughs to recall that when Frank Jr. arrived at her father\u2019s house on Fairview Road, ready to ask for her hand, his future wife was out on a date with someone else.<\/p>\n

The N&O, then in its third generation of Daniels family ownership, would circle around her family for most of her life. But she kept her distance from her husband\u2019s sphere of influence while creating her own.<\/p>\n

\u201cI might have been just as angry as the readers sometimes,\u201d she told The N&O in 1996. \u201cWe disagree a lot about philosophy, although I never espouse my opinions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniels began her volunteer work with low-income and disabled children while in college and kept it up throughout her life.<\/p>\n

In the late 1960s, the Junior League of Raleigh elected Daniels president while she had two young children: Frank III, then 13; Julie, then 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked the children if they would mind if I was president before I accepted,\u201c she joked to The N&O. \u201cJulie said yes as long as we got a new telephone line. That\u2019s the most exciting part to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any cause or candidate she supported got hosted for lunch or dinner in the Daniels home: the NC History Associates, the NC Society to Prevent Blindness, former second lady Tipper Gore, stumping for her husband\u2019s presidential campaign in 2000.<\/p>\n

There were times, she confessed in the mid-\u201890s, when she felt she\u2019d gone overboard.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was a political insider,\u201d Wheeler said, \u201cbut she was also the ultimate social connector, maybe in the history of Raleigh. She was the first to say, \u2018Let\u2019s do a lunch, let\u2019s do a dinner, let\u2019s do a party,\u2019 and she would invite the right people. She had that magic touch nobody could say no to. Julia, and ultimately Frank, they were a great team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Obituary for Julia Daniels, who led arts and history and museum causes and hosted political campaign events in Raleigh NC especially with Democratic Party candidates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-read-todays-edition"],"yoast_head":"\nJulia Daniels, a champion of art and culture married to N&O publisher, has died - Durham Moving Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=3404\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Julia Daniels, a champion of art and culture married to N&O publisher, has died - 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