Author, Columnist Russell Baker Dead At 93

LEESBURG, Va. (AP) — Russell Baker, the sharp-witted writer who won Pulitzer Prizes for his humorous columns in The New York Times and a moving autobiography of his impoverished Baltimore childhood and later hosted television’s “Masterpiece Theatre,” has died. He was 93. Allen Baker told The Associated Press that his father died on Monday from complications after a fall. Baker in his later years, he lived in Leesburg, Va., not far from the rural community of his native Morrisonville. Amiable and approachable, but also clear-eyed and street smart, Baker enjoyed a decades-long career as reporter, columnist, critic and on-air personality.