Archives West Finding Aid

Marilyn Kirkby, born Marilyn McKinley on January 23, 1930, worked as the fashion editor for The Seattle Times . She grew up in Mount Vernon and majored in Home Economics at the University of Washington. At college, she met Rollie Kirkby, a star halfback for the Husky football team. They were married January 17, 1953. After college, Marilyn was hired as a journalist by The Seattle Times , which would be her sole employer during her adult life. Her straightforward, unpretentious writing style and her sensitivity towards her workers quickly made her among the most widely respected journalists in fashion. Marilyn was soon promoted to department head of the fashion column, which sent her on trips to Paris, London, and Milan in 1961 to cover European fashion. In May of 1963 Marilyn, working under the pseudonym Dorothy Neighbors, traveled with a group of American food journalists to Denmark to sample traditional Danish cuisines, as is documented in this photograph album. In addition to the Isle of Funen, Marilyn visited Copenhagen and Tivoli Gardens.

Though she had quit smoking in 1984 after her husband's smoking habit killed him in 1978, Marilyn was diagnosed with esophagal cancer in 1991. She chronicled her 35-year addiction to smoking in her column and participated in an anti-cigarette video produced by the American Lung Association. Marilyn Kirkby died January 4, 1992.