Friday, January 30, 2009

Pulitzer-winning journalist Whitt of Ky. dies

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Retired Kentucky and Georgia journalist Richard Whitt, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of a nightclub fire that killed 165 people in 1977, has died. He was 64.

Whitt died Monday at his home in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta. The Courier-Journal reported the Cobb County medical examiner's office attributed the death to an apparent heart attack.

Whitt had been at The Courier-Journal for four months when the Beverly Hills Supper Club caught fire in Southgate, Ky., on May 28, 1977. His coverage revealed overcrowding and fire-code violations that led to fire-safety law reform and criminal investigations.

He was a native of Greenup County and a graduate of the University of Kentucky School of Journalism. He joined the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1989 and retired in 2006. He was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 1995.

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