By SARAH LINDENFELD HALL, Staff Writer

RALEIGH Louise "Scottie" Stephenson, known as the first lady of Capitol Broadcasting Co., who helped win the original license for WRAL-TV, died Monday morning after a long illness. She was 80.

Stephenson started working for Capitol 58 years ago and was the communications company's longest serving employee, with a tenure even longer than that of its founder, A. J. Fletcher. She spent at least three days a week at work until October, when she became ill, but continued to work at home. In February, she attended a board meeting of the A. J. Fletcher Foundation, held at Springmoor retirement community where she lived so she could participate.

"She was a great lady, and she had the respect of everybody that's ever worked for Capitol, and we're going to really miss her personally and we're going to miss her professionally," said James F. Goodmon, president and CEO of Capitol Broadcasting Co. "Scottie was sort of our contact with who we are and what we stand for and was an important continuity beginning with the founding of the TV station. She was there when it started."

Stephenson started her career as a receptionist, secretary and record librarian for what was then W RAL AM. She answered the phones for the popular radio show "The Trading Post," with Fred Fletcher as host, where listeners could swap and sell goods over the air. She became the company's corporate secretary and member of the board of directors in 1953.

She was the only woman on a five member team seeking a television station license for WRAL. She helped prepare 3,000 pages of paperwork and testified before the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D.C., during the 75 day hearing, according to a Capitol press release. The company received its license in December 1956.

Stephenson, a native of Goldsboro, graduated from Broughton High School and took classes at N.C. State University. She married Nelson W. "Steve" Stephenson in May 1948. He died in 1961, and she never remarried.

Stephenson served on the board of the Fletcher Foundation and volunteered with local arts groups. For more than four decades, she coordinated the Golden Agers Club Christmas parties in Raleigh. And for a half century, Stephenson had lunch once a week with her good friend Pota Vallas, whose family founded National Art Interiors at Hillsborough Street and Glenwood Avenue.

"I lost my best friend," Vallas said. "... She was a great lady. In my book, she was one of the best."