ALEXANDER, Shana 1925-2005

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born October 6, 1925, in New York, NY; died of cancer, June 23, 2005, in Hermosa Beach, CA. Journalist, broadcaster, and author. A columnist and editor for such magazines as Life and McCall's, Alexander became famous for her debates with James J. Kilpatrick on the "Point/Counterpoint" segment of the television news show 60 Minutes. Alexander was born to a privileged life as the daughter of Milton Ager, a famous composer, and Cecelia Ager, a renowned critic. Financial well-being provided her with an excellent education at Vassar College, where she completed her bachelor's degree in anthropology in 1945. By this time, she was already working at her first job at the New York City newspaper PM. She was a writer for the paper through the late 1940s, and from 1946 to 1947 also wrote for Harper's Bazaar. A year as entertainment editor for Flair magazine in 1950 was followed by an important shift to Life, where in 1951 Alexander became that magazine's first full-time female staff writer. She remained at Life through the 1960s, spending the last five years of this period as the author of the biweekly column "The Feminist Eye." Alexander next took on the post of editor at McCall's magazine from 1969 to 1971, the first woman to hold this position in several decades. Though she would always consider herself a print journalist, Alexander entered her occupation as a broadcast journalist when she took a job in 1970 as a commentator for the Columbia Broadcasting System program Spectrum. From 1974 to 1979, she became even more famous for her role in debating Kilpatrick on 60 Minutes. Although off the air the liberal Alexander and conservative Kilpatrick were friends, on the air their debates were often heated. The pair became so well known, in fact, that they were parodied several times by comedians Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd on the television variety show Saturday Night Live. Leaving television behind in 1979, Alexander became a full-time freelance writer, focusing on biography and true crime. Among her publications are Anyone's Daughter: The Times and Trials of Patty Hearst (1979), When She Was Bad: The Story of Bess, Hortense, Sukhreet, and Nancy (1990), and The Astonishing Elephant (2000). She also penned the memoir Happy Days: My Mother, My Father, My Sister, and Me (1995). Alexander had also served as vice president of Norton Simon Communications in the early 1970s and as a columnist for Newsweek. She was the recipient of such honors as the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Anyone's Daughter, and the Golden Pen Award.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Alexander, Shana, Happy Days: My Mother, My Father, My Sister, and Me, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1995.

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, June 24, 2005, p. B8.

New York Times, June 25, 2005, p. A13.