James Jackson Kilpatrick

Born in Oklahoma City in 1920, he studied journalism at the University of Missouri and began a newspaper career that would stretch across decades. He worked at the Richmond News Leader and became its editor, later moving onto the national stage as a syndicated columnist, television commentator, and author known for writing about both politics and the English language.

He was especially associated with conservative commentary and with books and columns on grammar and usage, which helped make him recognizable to readers well beyond the newspaper editorial page. Many readers knew him for his crisp, argumentative style and for his ability to turn questions of language into lively public conversation.

Any fair sketch of his life also has to include the most controversial part of it: in the 1950s and early 1960s, he argued strongly for Virginia's "Massive Resistance" campaign against the Supreme Court's school desegregation rulings. He died in 2010, leaving behind a body of work that is notable both for its influence in journalism and for the deep conflicts surrounding his role in that era.