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By NAFEESA SYEED, Associated Press Writer

Washington (AP) -- James J. Kilpatrick, who rose from cub
reporter to become one of the South's most prominent newspaper
editors and the nation's most widely syndicated political
columnist, has died. He was 89.


      Kilpatrick's wife, Marianne Means, said he died Sunday night at
George Washington University Hospital. Means said he was being
treated for congestive heart failure.


      TV watchers in the 1970s knew Kilpatrick as the conservative
half of the "Point-Counterpoint" segment of the CBS "60
Minutes." His sparring with liberal commentator Shana Alexander
was famously parodied on "Saturday Night Live."


      Means, also a former journalist, described him as "a great
family man" and a cultural icon of his era.


      "He was a wonderful human being," said Means, 76. "He
cultivated a public image on TV of being a cranky conservative ...
but he wasn't a cranky conservative at home."

      Before retiring a couple of years ago, he worked for years for
Universal Press Syndicate.


      He also was the author of a dozen books and numerous magazine
articles. He wrote columns on the U.S. Supreme Court and "The
Writer's Art," on the use and abuse of the English language, which
appeared in hundreds of daily newspapers.


      Kilpatrick was for many years a vocal supporter of racial
segregation. When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down separate but
equal schools in its Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954,
he accused the court of repudiating the Constitution.


      "If it be said now that the South be flouting the law, let it
be said to the high court: you taught us how," he wrote. Later, he
would abandon the fight, saying his views had changed.


      "He apologized over and over publicly and in print when he
could about being on the wrong side of the segregation issue,"
Means said. "He was a son of the South."


      His newspaper columns were first syndicated in 1964, and two
years later Kilpatrick left the Richmond (Va.) News Leader for
Washington to write columns full time. He also served as
contributing editor to the National Review and had a monthly column
in Nation's Business.


      He appeared as an analyst on television's "Agronsky and
Company" and was on "60 Minutes," teamed first with liberal
Nicholas Von Hoffman and then, starting in 1975, with Alexander.


      The in-your-face, conservative vs. liberal format is now widely
duplicated on broadcast and cable channels.


      "People love to watch other people go at it. It does make for
good entertainment," Kilpatrick commented in 1981 in a Washington
Post story about a similar program.


      But to baby boomers, the "60 Minutes" pairing would be forever
known as the source for the Dan Aykroyd-Jane Curtin "SNL" parody,
in which Aykroyd dismissed Curtin's opinions with a terse, "Jane,
you ignorant slut."


      Conservatives, Kilpatrick wrote in Nation's Business in 1978,
"believe that a civilized society demands orders and classes, that
men are not inherently equal, that change and reform are not
identical, that in a free society men are children of God and not
wards of the state."


      Kilpatrick also had a sense of whimsy, and as a young reporter
he once tried to get a state lawmaker to introduce a bill outlawing
the month of February.


      One of his most popular columns had nothing to do with politics
but how to deal with a skunk that had taken up residence beneath
the office in his home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
More than 500 readers sent suggestions.


      Much of Kilpatrick's later work focused on writing well.


      "Be clear, be clear, be clear!" he admonished in his book
"The Writer's Art," published in 1984. "Your image or idea may
be murky but do not write murkily about it. Be murky clearly."


      Kilpatrick was born Nov. 1, 1920. The man known as "Kilpo" to
his media colleagues was one of three children of an Oklahoma City
lumber dealer and his wife. He showed an early penchant for
letters, reading by age 4 and deciding early on he wanted to be a
newsman.


      He worked summers as a copyboy at the Oklahoma City Times while
studying journalism at the University of Missouri.


      After graduation in 1941, Kilpatrick took a job with the
Richmond News Leader. In 10 years, he was the newspaper's editor in
chief.
      Kilpatrick, who received numerous journalism awards, was one of
the few columnists ever honored as a fellow of the Society of
Professional Journalists.


      Other honors included the William Allen White Award from the
University of Kansas and the Carr Van Anda Award from Ohio
University. Kilpatrick was also a trustee of the Supreme Court
Historical Society and a founding trustee of the Thomas Jefferson
Center for the Protection of Free Expression.


      His first wife, sculptor Marie Pietri, died of cancer in 1997.
In 1998, Kilpatrick married Marianne Means, a longtime Washington
columnist for Hearst Newspapers.


      Associated Press writer Bruce Smith in Charleston, S.C.,
contributed to this report.
      

Gallery

James J. Kilpatrick, who rose from cub
reporter to become one of the South's most prominent newspaper
editors and the nation's most widely syndicated political
columnist, has died. He was 89.

Columnist, wordsmith James Kilpatrick dies at 89

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