Mourning Frank McCourt in Marty’s Words
Frank McCourt
Brooklyn-born Frank McCourt, pulitzer prize winning school teacher and the best-selling author of Angela’s Ashes, died Sunday of cancer at age 78. From the LA Times obituary:
McCourt, who was recently treated for melanoma and then became gravely ill with meningitis, died at a hospice in New York City, his brother Malachy told the Associated Press.
"I’m a late bloomer," a 66-year-old McCourt told the New York Times shortly after publication of "Angela’s Ashes" in 1996.
McCourt, the Brooklyn-born son of Irish immigrants who returned to Ireland with the family during the Depression when he was 4 years old, had spent three decades teaching English and creative writing in the New York public school system.
Marty Markowitz sent out his condolences this evening, on the loss of a borough native.
Brooklyn mourns the loss of Frank McCourt, one of our borough’s favorite sons and a fellow Brooklyn College alumnus who rose from poverty to become one of our finest city school teachers and best-selling authors. With Angela’s Ashes, he created a beautiful work of art by drawing on a childhood marked with the sort of adversity that few of us are ever forced to experience. Frank McCourt was a living, breathing example of what I call the ‘Brooklyn attitude’—nothing held him back and no obstacle prevented him from reaching the zenith of his potential. On behalf of all Brooklynites, my deepest sympathies to his wife, daughter and all of his loved ones.
