Detroit Columnist Laura Berman pens a nice piece on Ruth Bridget Coughlin, a charming, witty and good-humored woman who was a former Detroit News book editor. She died Christmas Day in Dover, N.J. She was 71.
Berman writes that Coughlin, who lived in Manhattan for most of her adult life, moved to Detroit for the man she loved.
He was William J. Coughlin, a federal administrative law judge and novelist. She was a book editor — his editor at Delacorte Press, and one who worked so cleverly on his manuscripts that he didn't want to live without her. At 39, she was a first-time bride, plunked into a midwestern city that looked provincial to her. At the time, she didn't even have a driver's license.
Two years later, she arrived at The Detroit News as its book editor — a job that enabled her to interview authors, review books and maintain a presence in the literary world. Her office at The News, in those pre-cubicle days, was filled with stacks of books, decorated with photographs of award-winning authors. From it, her laugh trilled through the features department. That, the scent of her Opium perfume, and clouds of cigarette smoke all signaled her presence.
Last week, in the early morning of Christmas Day, she died at age 71 in Dover, New Jersey. Her cousin, Alicia Nordquist, who took responsibility for her well-being after she suffered a series of strokes in 2012, was with her.
In 1994, three years after her husband passed away, she published a book entitled: "Grieving: A Love Story." Amazon describes it this way:
A widow's recollections of her husband's ten-month battle with cancer describe her profound sense of loss and devastation after his death, her confrontation with anger, and her adjustment to life without him.
