A Legendary Journalist Gets Her Own UES Street

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A section of East 68th Street near Park Avenue has a new name: "Dorothy Kilgallen Way," honoring the trailblazing New York City journalist who once lived on the block.

The naming, which happened Saturday, marked the 60th anniversary of Kilgallen’s untimely and mysterious death at the height of her career in 1965.

"She shattered glass ceilings in an era when men ruled broadcasting and the press," Councilmember Robert Holden, who spearheaded the initiative to name her former street after her, said on X.

Born in 1913, Kilgallen started her writing career at age 18, and was known for her fearless investigative reporting and cultural influence.

She had a daily column called the "Voice of Broadway," covering everything from show business news and gossip to politics and organized crime, which was syndicated in 140 papers nationwide.

She also regularly appeared on a TV game show called "What's My Line?"

She investigated high-profile stories including the deaths of John F. Kennedy in the New York Evening Journal and New York Journal American. She mysteriously died from an overdose while she was still investigating the death of JFK.

Holden said the street naming was inspired in part by Mark Shaw, a former attorney and author who has written extensively on Kilgallen’s life and work.

According to Shaw's writings, Kilgallen was found dead in bed in her home on the Upper East Side in 1965, and her death was quickly ruled as an accidental overdose from alcohol and sleeping pills, without an investigation of foul play.

But, that day, her 18 months of research on the JFK assassination disappeared, including two interviews with Jack Ruby, the man who killed JFK's killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, Shaw writes.

"Kilgallen relentlessly pursued the truth, including her probing reporting on the JFK assassination, and she died under mysterious circumstances while still investigating," Holden said.

"We will not forget her courage, her voice, or her legacy," Holden said. "I am committed to keeping her story alive and pushing for the transparency and justice she was seeking."

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