Judy Mann, 61; Author, Former Columnist at Washington Post

Judy Mann, 61, a former columnist for the Washington Post who wrote about issues facing women in American society, died Friday of breast cancer at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs.

After joining the Post in 1972 as a city reporter and later working as a city editor, Mann wrote her column from 1978 until her retirement in 2001. She touched on national and international issues, political and social problems and women’s rights. She also wrote about the challenges of bringing up three children and running her Gender Gap Farm.

Mann was the author of two books, “Mann for All Seasons” in 1990, a collection of her columns, and “The Difference: Growing Up Female in America” in 1994. Kirkus Reviews called the latter book “a clean, convincing case for breaking destructive gender roles.”

Born Dec. 24, 1943, in Washington, D.C., Mann spent her childhood in Paris, where her father, Charles B. Warden, was an official in the Marshall Plan. She attended Barnard College in New York but dropped out to organize Vietnam War protests.