The Trustees and staff of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust deeply mourn the passing of our friend Lucinda Franks, the widow of Robert Morgenthau, our co-Founder and former Chairman.
Lucinda was a remarkable person. A Journalist, novelist, and memoirist, she was the youngest winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. A longtime staffer at The New Yorker, and contributor to The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Nation, People, and many others. The New York Times described her as a journalist who broke molds with an “eye for a hot story.” Her memoir, My Father’s Secret War, uncovered her father’s secret life as a spy in World War II, where he went undercover as an SS officer at a subcamp of Buchenwald, reporting on the atrocities being committed there. Her memoir, Timeless: Love, Morgenthau, and Me, chronicled her marriage to Robert and their ever-lasting love.
“Lucinda was a wonderful journalist, and a friend to the Museum as the wife of our founding Chairman. Her family’s involvement continues with her stepson, Robert P. Morgenthau, who serves as a Trustee,” said Bruce Ratner Chairman of the Board.
She is survived by her children, Joshua Franks Moregnthau and Amy Elinor Morgenthau, as well as four of Robert Morgenthau’s children by his first marriage, Jenny Morgenthau, Ann Morgenthau Grand, Barbara Moregnthau Lee, and Robert P. Morgenthau.
Read her New York Times Obituary