Kernan, Michael (Jenkins), (Jr.) 1927–2005

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Kernan, Michael (Jenkins), (Jr.) 1927–2005

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born April 29, 1927, in Utica, NY; died of pancreatic cancer May 4, 2005, in Bennington, VA. Journalist and author. Kernan was best remembered as a longtime writer for the Style section of the Washington Post. A 1949 graduate of Harvard University, his first job was with the Watertown Times in New York. In 1953 he was hired by the Redwood City Tribune in northern California as a writer; here he became news editor in 1962 and city editor in 1963. He joined the staff at the Washington Post in 1967, and his writing skills were soon recognized by the editors, who put placed him on the staff of the then-new Style section in 1969. Kernan wrote for Style for the next two decades. Able to write on various different topics, Kernan's column covered subjects ranging from movies and travel to literature and pocket knives. Retiring in 1989, he moved to Baltimore and then, in 2002, to Vermont, but he continued to write articles and manuscripts. He published hundreds of articles in the Smithsonian, and other publications, as well as two books: the nonfiction work The Violet Dots (1978) and the novel The Lost Diaries of Frans Hals (1994). Kernan also completed manuscripts for seven other novels, though these were never published.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, April 7, 2005, p. B17.

Washington Post, May 6, 2005, p. B8.