Shirley Jean Tomkievicz (née Abbott; November 16, 1934, Hot Springs, Arkansas – April 8, 2019, Portland, Oregon) was an American magazine editor, writer, journalist, and historian.
[1] Born Shirley Jean Abbott in Hot Springs, Arkansas, her father was a bookmaker who took bets on illegal, off-track horse races, but was quixotically a well-respected member of the community.
[4] As the Encyclopedia of Arkansas notes, "Abbott wrote articles for Smithsonian, Lear’s, Gourmet, Harper’s, American Heritage, Southern Living, McCall’s, Glamour, and Boston Review, as well as for newspapers.
[1] On September 11, 2001, in her apartment about one mile (1.6 kilometer) from the World Trade Center, Shirley Abbott Tomkievicz was talking on her phone to a friend when the first plane struck.
[6] In the last years of her life she bought a house in Portland, Oregon and moved there from New York City to be near the family of one of her daughters.