BOSTON -- Funeral services are scheduled Tuesday for Boston Herald gossip columnist Norma Nathan, who died Saturday of cancer.
Nathan, who died around 3 p.m. at Beverly Hospital, had been on leave from the Herald for months as she battled cancer of the jaw.
Nathan and her husband, longtime radio personality Norm Nathan, were well-known figures in Boston.
Herald Editor Kenneth A. Chandler praised Nathan as a 'tenacious' and 'feisty' journalist. He said her gossip column, 'The Eye,' was for years the most popular daily feature in the paper.
'She really broke the rules,' Chandler said. 'Her column was a must-read.'
'All of us at the Herald are saddened by the loss of our dear friend Norma,' said Herald Publisher Patrick J. Purcell. 'She was the embodiment of what one looks for in a journalist: aggressive, dedicated, tenacious, compassionate and understanding.'
Nathan's column kept readers filled in on the doings of prominent Bostonians, media figures, sports and showbiz celebrities, and the Kennedy clan. It was her trademark to punctuate her observations with the exclamation 'Eye say!'
Nathan is survived by her husband of 41 years and the couple's two daughters, Sonja Nathan and Sarah Nathan, a reporter for the Portsmouth Press in Portsmouth, N.H. She also leaves a sister, Ethel Gould of Nashua, N.H.
Funeral services were scheduled at noon Tuesday at the Peterson- O'Donnell Funeral Home in Danvers. Burial will be in Oakdale Cemetery in Middleton.
