Dorothy Kilgallen (1913–1965)

Dorothy Kilgallen was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of James Lawrence Kilgallen, a newspaper reporter, and his wife Mae Ahern. The family moved to various regions of the USA for her father's work until 1920, when he was hired by the International News Service based in New York City. The family settled in Brooklyn and Dorothy graduated from Erasmus Hall High School and then spent two semesters at The College of New Rochelle. In 1936, at age 23, she competed with two male New York newspaper reporters in a race around the world and came in second. She described the event in her book, Girl Around The World (1936). In 1938, she began writing a daily column, "Voice of Broadway," for the New York Journal-American, featuring mostly New York show business news and gossip, but also other topics such as politics and organized crime. The column, which she wrote for the rest of her life, eventually was syndicated to 146 newspapers.

In 1940, Dorothy married Richard Kollmar, a musical comedy actor and singer with whom she had three children.
Both launched careers in network radio; Dorothy's program, called Voice of Broadway like her newspaper column, was broadcast on CBS Radio. In 1945, the two began co-hosting a morning radio talk show, Breakfast With Dorothy and Dick, on WOR-AM from their apartment; it lasted until 1963. In 1950, Dorothy became a regular panelist on the television game show What's My Line?, continuing in the role until her death.
The show made her a national celebrity. Besides writing her column, she also reported major news events. Murder One, a collection of her most interesting murder cases, was published posthumously in 1967.