Isabel Worrell Ball

Sarah Isabel Worrell Ball McElroy (March 13, 1855 – July 5, 1931) was an American journalist and newspaper editor.

She was active in the Woman's Relief Corps and became the editor of the National Tribune, a weekly publication of the Grand Army of the Republic.

One of her first major beats was reporting from the field on construction of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad line between Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Needles, California.

In connection with this job, she became one of the first woman admitted to the press gallery of the U.S. Senate,[2] where she noted that her arrival was greeted "with the enthusiasm of a case of smallpox".

[3] During this period of her life, Ball became heavily involved with the Woman's Relief Corps (WRC), an auxiliary of the veteran's fraternal organization known as the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR).