Beverly Rae Kimes: Automotive Journalist and Historian, Is Dead at 68
Beverly Rae Kimes, who, after failing to find work as a theater writer, parlayed a job as a secretary at a fledgling car magazine into a career as one of the nation’s pre-eminent historians of automobiles, died on May 12 at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. She was 68.
Her husband, James H. Cox, announced the death but did not give a cause.
When Ms. Kimes became the first employee hired at Automobile Quarterly — which aimed to define elegance in cars, mainly antique ones — she said her main qualification was a driver’s license. But she quickly advanced from typing and stenography to writing or editing more than 20 books and hundreds of articles; winning almost every award in automotive journalism; and becoming a judge and announcer at classic car meets.
In announcing her death, the Antique Automobile Club of America called her “one of the greatest automotive writers of our time.”
Read entire article at NYT
Her husband, James H. Cox, announced the death but did not give a cause.
When Ms. Kimes became the first employee hired at Automobile Quarterly — which aimed to define elegance in cars, mainly antique ones — she said her main qualification was a driver’s license. But she quickly advanced from typing and stenography to writing or editing more than 20 books and hundreds of articles; winning almost every award in automotive journalism; and becoming a judge and announcer at classic car meets.
In announcing her death, the Antique Automobile Club of America called her “one of the greatest automotive writers of our time.”