WASHINGTON — James J. Kilpatrick, who rose from cub reporter to become one of the South's most prominent newspaper editors and the nation's most widely syndicated political columnist, died. He was 89.

Kilpatrick's wife, Marianne Means, said he died Sunday night at George Washington University Hospital. Means said he was being treated for congestive heart failure.

TV watchers in the 1970s knew Kilpatrick as the conservative half of the "Point-Counterpoint" segment of the CBS "60 Minutes." His sparring with liberal commentator Shana Alexander was famously parodied on "Saturday Night Live."

Means, also a former journalist, described him as "a great family man" and a cultural icon of his era.

Before retiring a couple years ago, he worked for years for Universal Press Syndicate.

He also was the author of a dozen books and numerous magazine articles. He wrote columns on the U.S. Supreme Court and "The Writer's Art," on the use and abuse of the English language, which appeared in hundreds of daily newspapers.

Kilpatrick was for many years a vocal supporter of racial segregation. When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down separate but equal schools in its Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954, he accused the court of repudiating the Constitution.

"If it be said now that the South be flouting the law, let it be said to the high court: you taught us how," he wrote. Later, he would abandon the fight, saying his views had changed.

"He apologized over and over publicly and in print when he could about being on the wrong side of the segregation issue," Means said. "He was a son of the South."

By The Associated Press