Prizewinning writer tapped into her own experiences to tell memorable stories about the health-care industry, immigration and Jewish culture

By Brenda Cronin Friday, July 12, 2019

Lucette Lagnado, seen at Canio’s Books in Sag Harbor, N.Y., around 2009, brought empathy to storytelling. Photo: Kathryn Szoka

Lucette Lagnado, a prizewinning author and reporter for The Wall Street Journal, brought a writer’s curiosity and a patient’s empathy to storytelling, illuminating the plight of the uninsured, the sick and the elderly for readers around the world.

Ms. Lagnado died on Wednesday in New York. She was 62 years old. In hundreds of Journal articles, she put a human face on the changing health-care industry, the immigrant experience and Jewish culture, with evocative accounts that focused on conditions in hospitals and nursing homes.

“Lucette brought a unique and powerful voice to the Journal, combining a relentless curiosity with a big heart and deep empathy,” said Editor in Chief Matt Murray. “Readers knew she would bring a wealth of knowledge and humanity to everything she wrote.”

Ms. Lagnado drew on her own background for some of her most memorable stories. She battled cancer as a teenager and credited the support of her physician, Burton Lee, in part for restoring her health. After Dr. Lee’s death in 2016, she wrote a first-person account of their enduring bond. She also wrote about how as a girl bedridden with cancer, she was inspired by Emma Peel, the fearless British secret agent portrayed by Diana Rigg in the 1960s television show, “The Avengers.”

“She was a courageous and brilliant reporter and writer,” said Paul Steiger, who was managing editor of the Journal in 1996, when Ms. Lagnado was hired to report on hospitals. She expanded her portfolio to broader health-care issues and in 2000 was named a senior special writer. In almost 25 years at the Journal, Ms. Lagnado’s award-winning coverage included articles on women at risk of breast cancer who had preventive double mastectomies, as well as investigations into how nursing homes handle patients with dementia.

Born in Egypt and raised in Brooklyn, Ms. Lagnado wrote a memoir about her father’s flight from Cairo as Gamal Abdel Nasser came to power, titled: “The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: A Jewish Family’s Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World.” She continued the tale with a subsequent memoir, published in 2011: “The Arrogant Years: One Girl’s Search for Her Lost Youth, from Cairo to Brooklyn.” Ms. Lagnado also co-wrote “Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz,” about individuals subjected to Nazi experiments during World War II.

Whatever the subject, her zeal for reporting a story and turning it into a riveting, personal narrative was unflagging. Ms. Lagnado carried a dizzying quiver of story ideas and held each one—as she often wrote to her editors—“so close to my heart.”

Among her final Journal articles was a portrait of six nurses who trained together in the Philippines and emigrated to the U.S. to pursue their careers, all the while caring for one another like a small, self-selected family. As she wrapped up the text, Ms. Lagnado emailed her editor: “I have the chills!” The story, “A Sisterhood of Nurses,” racked up a huge readership and sparked interest from Hollywood.

copied from WSJ Write to Brenda Cronin at brenda.cronin@wsj.com