Shana Alexander (October 6, 1925 - June 23, 2005) was an American columnist. Although she became the first woman staff writer and columnist for Life magazine, she was best known for her participation in the "Point-Counterpoint" debate segments of 60 Minutes with conservative James J. Kilpatrick. She was the daughter of Tin Pan Alley composer Milton Ager and columnist Cecilia Ager. Her ashes are interred, with her daughter Kathy's, at Westwood Village Memorial Cemetery in Los Angeles, with those of her parents, and in Sag Harbor, New York. October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in Leap years). ... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... June 23 is the 174th day of the year (175th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 191 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A columnist is a journalist who produces a specific form of writing for publication called a column. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and the Internet. ... Edward Steichen portrait of Greta Garbo. ... The ticking TAG Heuer stopwatch from 60 Minutes. ... James J. Kilpatrick is a conservative columnist. ... Tin Pan Alley was the name given to the collection of New York City-centered music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States of America in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. ... Milton Ager (October 6, 1893 - May 6, 1979) was an Jewish-American pianist and composer. ...

Alexander graduated from Vassar College in 1945, majoring in anthropology. She fell into writing when she took a summer job as a copy clerk at the New York newspaper PM, where her mother worked. She worked as a freelance writer for Junior Bazaar and Mademoiselle magazines before becoming a researcher at Life for $65 a week in 1951. During the 1960s she wrote "The Feminine Eye" column for Life. Image File history File links Shana_alexander. ... Closeup of the Vassar Main Building Vassar College is a private, highly selective, coeducational liberal arts college situated in Poughkeepsie, New York. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... Anthropology (from the Greek word άνθρωπος, human or person) consists of the study of humanity (see genus Homo). ... Official language(s) None, English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 27th 141,205 km² 455 km 530 km 13. ... PM was a leftist daily newspaper in New York City launched in June 1940, bankrolled by eccentric Chicago millionaire Marshall Field III. The paper employed some radical journalists, among them some known members of the Communist Party. ... For the courtesy title, see Mademoiselle or Miss Mademoiselle was a womens magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. ...

In 1969 she became the first female editor at McCall's, but quit in 1971, complaining that it was a token job in a sexist environment. Cover of the March 1911 issue McCalls was a monthly American womens magazine that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of six million in 1960. ...

She was writing a column for Newsweek in 1975 when she replaced Nicholas von Hoffman on 60 Minutes, and debated Kilpatrick for the next four years. She played down this part of her career, commenting in 1979 that prior to that she "had been a writer, a columnist for Life magazine and for newsweek -- that was about as high as you could get in column writing. I care about my writing. I'm not a quack-quack TV journalist." The Newsweek logo Newsweek is a weekly news magazine published in New York City and distributed throughout the United States and internationally. ... Nicholas von Hoffman is an American journalist and author of German-Russian extraction, descendant of Melchior Hoffman and son of Carl von Hoffman. ...

She died of cancer in Hermosa Beach, California at the age of 79 on June 23, 2005. Hermosa Beach is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. ... June 23 is the 174th day of the year (175th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 191 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

She had been married and divorced twice. Her only daughter, Kathy, died in 1987 after jumping from Alexander's Park Avenue apartment. Park Avenue in the Upper East Side (2004) Park Avenue runs north and south between Madison Avenue and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan in New York City. ...

She was rumored to have had a longtime affair with the late Eugene McCarthy. Senator McCarthy left his wife in 1968 but never divorced her. Eugene Joseph Gene McCarthy (March 29, 1916 – December 10, 2005) was an American politician and a longtime member of the U.S. Congress. ...

Books

• Anyone's Daughter
• Happy Days: My Mother, My Father, My Sister & Me (1995), autobiography
• Very Much a Lady
• When She Was Bad
• Nutcracker