On Sunday, New York City said goodbye to one of it’s most gifted journalists. Jimmy Breslin. He died at 88. A Pulitzer prize winner, a gifted writer, and a legend, Breslin was one to admire in the field of journalism. With a passion for writing, he wrote several newspapers and published many books.
From covering presidents to mayors, to even the troubled, Breslin was known for being “empathetic” towards people. Best known for interviewing the former president, John F. Kennedy’s grave digger, Breslin went into complete details on how Clifton Pollard described the morning he went to dig up the site to where JFK would be buried. Something few journalists could describe so clearly.
Born in Queens, New York, Breslin wrote books about the Mets, and the Mafia and wrote for many New York newspapers, such as Newsday, the Herald Tribune, and the New York Post. Not a fan of “pretentious” people, Breslin always looked more to what people told rather than just writing about it. He would take his readers to the actual event or story he was writing about, such as the one on Pollard at the gravesite. Breslin changed the game of reporting in a way very few reporters have done so.
In 1986 he won the coveted award of the Pulitzer prize for being an extraordinary and exceptional writer, and always giving outsiders a better view of what his stories or columns were about.
Breslin wasn’t afraid to get personal. Mostly known from going to a sports columnist to a news one, he wrote a book on himself in the 90’s, titled “I Want To Thank My Brain For Remembering Me”. The title was due to a successful brain aneurysm operation he underwent.
His cause of death has not been released yet, he was described as dying “just like that” by his wife, Ronnie Eldridge, but age could have played a part as he was having complications from pneumonia.
Featured Image Via:Â Flickr
