American journalist and writer Liz Smith was BOTD in 1923. Born in Forth Worth, Texas, she studied journalism at the University of Texas and worked for local newspapers. In the 1950s, she moved to New York City where she worked as a television producer for CBS News and Candid Camera. She began ghost-writing a newspaper gossip column, before becoming entertainment editor for Cosmopolitan and Sports Illustrated magazines. In 1976, she began a popular and long-running gossip column for the New York Daily News, and appeared on television news show Live at Five, becoming a fixture in Manhattan’s social scene, becoming known as “The Grande Dame of Dish”. An amusing and mostly respectful reporter, she befriended many of her favourite interviewees. “Her brand of gossip is the old-fashioned kind, not the embarrassing or repulsive stuff dug up by so many of her journalistic colleagues,” critics wrote. “When she escorts us into the private lives of popular culture’s gods and monsters, it’s with a spirit of wonder, not meanness.” Married and divorced twice, Smith was a long-term relationship with archaeologist Iris Love for 15 years. In her 2000 memoir Natural Blonde, she admitted her bisexuality, though stated later that she was uninterested in becoming a role model for the LGBTQ community. She died in 2017, aged 94.