James Kilpatrick, conservative commentator, dies at 89

James J. Kilpatrick, the conservative commentator and former editor of The Richmond News Leader, has died after a long illness, his family said today. He was 89.

Mr. Kilpatrick died last night at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, said one of his sons, Sean Kilpatrick.  

Kilpatrick, known to television viewers as a commentator on “Point-Counterpoint” segment of “60 Minutes,” and as a columnist who eloquently wrote about the use of the language, was a syndicated columnist after leaving The News Leader, where as an editorialist he supported the failed policies of Massive Resistance to school desegregation.  

In a Times-Dispatch interview in 2000, Mr. Kilpatrick said that in later years, he remained troubled by his former editorial stance. But, he added, his argument on school integration was “an effort to elevate the debate above the blood in the streets. The hope was it might in some obscure way have calmed the waves of passion. That was one of the motives, and the other was to keep the schools segregated until things settled down.”  

After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education decision declaring an end to legal public school segregation, Mr. Kilpatrick wrote, “These nine men repudiated the Constitution, spit upon the Tenth Amendment and rewrote the fundamental law of this land to suit their own gauzy concepts of sociology. If it be said now that the South is flouting the law, let it be said to the high court: you taught us how.”

Mr. Kilpatrick at that time advocated the pre-Civil War doctrine of interposition, which asserts that a state may reject a federal mandate that it considers to encroach on its rights.

Mr. Kilpatrick, who oversaw the editorial pages of The News Leader under the title of editor, came to The News Leader under Douglas Southall Freeman.

He moved to Washington in 1966, his family said, and later wrote for Universal Press Syndicate, his column appearing in more than 500 newspapers nationwide.

His wife, Marianne Means, a former journalist, told the AP that Kilpatrick was "a great family man" and a cultural icon of his era.

"He was a wonderful human being," said Means, 76. "He cultivated a public image on TV of being a cranky conservative ... but he wasn't a cranky conservative at home."

Kilpatrick, in his "60 Minutes" debates, first with liberal Nicholas Von Hoffman and later with Shana Alexander, became a broadcast pioneer as well -- the conservative vs. liberal confrontation later became a staple of broadcast and cable news.

"People love to watch other people go at it. It does make for good entertainment," Kilpatrick, also an analyst on Agronsky and Company, commented in 1981 in a Washington Post story about a similar program, the AP reported.

But to baby boomers, the "60 Minutes" pairing would be forever known as the source for the Dan Aykroyd-Jane Curtin "SNL" parody, in which Aykroyd famously dismissed Curtin's opinions.

Richmond civil-rights attorney Oliver W. Hill Sr. and Kilpatrick "actually had a cordial relationship despite being adversaries," said Hill's son, Oliver W. Hill Jr., a psychology professor at Virginia State University.

"Politically, they were bitter enemies in terms of the goals and strategies they were involved with," Hill recalled.  "One of the things my father said was that (Kilpatrick) had such a sharp intellect, it was a shame he couldn't see what my father saw as such an eminently reasonable argument for equal rights for all people."

Former Republican Gov. Linwood Holton, who clashed with GOP conservatives, said he had a "great deal of fondness" for Mr. Kilpatrick. He added that Mr. Kilpatrick had a long career as a writer and commentator and that he had "made it clear that he had gotten over any discriminatory instincts."

Kilpatrick was born Nov. 1, 1920. The man known as "Kilpo" to his media colleagues was one of three children of an Oklahoma City lumber dealer and his wife. He showed an early penchant for letters, reading by age 4 and deciding early on he wanted to be a newsman.

He worked summers as a copyboy at the Oklahoma City Times while studying journalism at the University of Missouri. After graduation in 1941, Kilpatrick took a job with The News Leader, working his way up the ranks.

Kilpatrick, who received numerous journalism awards, was one of the few columnists ever honored as a fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Other honors included the William Allen White Award from the University of Kansas and the Carr Van Anda Award from Ohio University. Kilpatrick was also a trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society and a founding trustee of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.

In his later years Mr. Kilpatrick lived in Rappahannock County, which he recalled in his book, "The Foxes’ Union." His other books included "Fine Print: Reflections on the Writing Art" and "A Political Bestiary, which he co-wrote with former Sen. Eugene McCarthy, D-Minn., and Jeff MacNelly, the late Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist who also worked for The News Leader. Mr. Kilpatrick wrote 11 books, his family said.

Survivors in addition to his wife include three sons; four stepdaughters; seven grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren, his family said.  His first wife, sculptor Marie Pietri, died of cancer in 1997.