About Shana Alexander
Shana Alexander (October 6, 1925 – June 23, 2005) was an American journalist. Although she became the first woman staff writer and columnist for Life magazine, she was best known for her participation in the "Point-Counterpoint" debate segments of 60 Minutes in the late 1970s with conservative James J. Kilpatrick. == Early life and journalism career == Alexander was born Shana Ager on October 6, 1925, in New York City, the daughter of columnist Cecelia Ager (née Rubenstein) and Tin Pan Alley composer Milton Ager, who composed the song "Happy Days Are Here Again". She inspired his famous song "Ain't She Sweet." Her family was Jewish. Alexander graduated from Vassar College in 1945, majoring in anthropology. She fell into writing when she took a summer job as a copy clerk at the New York City newspaper PM, where her mother worked. She worked as a freelance writer for Junior Bazaar and Mademoiselle magazines before becoming a researcher at Life magazine for $65 a week in 1951. During the 1960s she wrote "The Feminine Eye" column for Life. In 1962 she wrote an article for Life entitled "They Decide Who Lives, Who Dies: Medical miracle puts moral burden on small committee," which sparked a national debate on the allocation of scarce kidney dialysis machine resources. Another Life article, about a suicide-hotline worker's efforts to keep a caller from killing herself, was turned into the 1965 film, The Slender Thread.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.