Manners expert Post dies

Associated Press

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.

Elizabeth Post, an etiquette expert known for writing books and magazine columns on manners, has died. She was 89.

Post died Saturday in the southwest Florida city of Naples, her family said. Post was the granddaughter-in-law of the country’s foremost etiquette expert, Emily Post. In 1965, five years after the elder Post died, Elizabeth took the helm of the Emily Post Institute in Burlington, Vt.

To Elizabeth Post, known by family and friends as “Libby,” good manners meant having a kind attitude toward everyone.

“Libby was very open minded, fair and flexible,” said daughter-in-law Peggy Post on Tuesday. “She was full of common sense and kindness. Not at all pretentious and not at all stuffy.”

Born in Englewood, N.J., in 1920, Post married William Goadby Post in 1944. He was the only grandchild of Emily Post, who wrote the seminal book “Emily Post’s Etiquette” in 1922.

Elizabeth Post became active in the family business in the 1960s, at a time when manners and social mores were becoming more relaxed.

“So much was changing,” said Peggy Post. “Libby kept that core message of etiquette going. Those principles of being respectful and considerate are important.”