Kathleen (Kathy) Virginia Dunigan Fury (June 6, 1941-November 14, 2016) was born in New York City but grew up in Indiana. Her parents Virginia and Jack Dunigan preceded her in death.   She had one sister Pat and one brother Michael.  She is survived by her husband Len Fury and a nephew Jeffrey Dunigan. 

Kathy attended Ohio Wesleyan University and graduated from Perdue University in 1964 and immediately went to New York City where Redbook hired her as a secretary.  She soon advanced to the editorial department.   

She worked as editor or writer for all the major women’s magazine in the 60s, 70s, and 80s—including Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, McCalls, Womans Day, Family Circle, Working Woman and a dozen or so more.

        She interviewed and wrote stories about many celebrities including Liza Minnelli, Bill Cosby, Joan Baez, Phil Donahue, Cloris Leachman, Jack Nicholson, Oprah, and Dick Cavett.  She wrote humor columns for Working Woman and Savvy. 

        In 1975, McCalls appointed her editor-in-chief of their new magazine Your Place. It ceased publication in the late 1970s and Kathy spent the last decades of her career as a free-lance writer, interviewing celebrities and writing her humor columns.

Kathy was a founding member, along with the other prestigious women writers and editors in New York City, of the Women’s Media Group.  She served as president in 1982.

        Kathy married Leonard (Len) Fury on December 26, 1965.  They moved to Hendersonville, North Carolina, in 2002 and to Butler Mountain in Fairview in 2003 and then to Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community in Asheville in 2012. 

Kathy died on November 14, 2016, in hospice care at Care Partners in Asheville.  Her Memorial Service will be held at 10:30 am on January 7 in St. Giles Chapel at Deerfield. Memorial gifts may be made to the Residents’ Fund at Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community.

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