Author. She was an English-born American author of the 20th century, who was known for her frankness of her political beliefs. She started writing in the 1950s after become an American citizen in 1944. Born, Jessica Lucy Mitford, the fifth of six aristocratic sisters and one brother, her father was 2nd Baron Redesdale, and the family's surname was Freeman-Mitford. Her family was known for authors and their non-traditional political beliefs. Two of her sisters and a brother-in-law were supporters of Germany's Nazi dictator Adolph Hitler, and with the outbreak of World War II between Britain and Germany, a sister and the brother-in -law were detained without trial from 1940 to 1943. With little formal education, she read a great deal, becoming self-educated. She was accepted in the highest social circles, being a bridesmaid at Winston Churchill's wedding. In June of 1937, she married Esmond Romilly, a nephew of Winston Churchill, who was an author, newspaper journalist, fought in the Spanish Civil War with a German unit, and was killed in action during World War II as a pilot serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941. Their daughter was nine months old when Romilly died. In 1943 marrying again, her second husband was an American Civil Rights lawyer, Robert Treuhaft. The couple had two sons; Nicholas, who was born in 1944 and killed when hit by a bus at age 10, and Benjamin, who was born in 1947. She published her autobiography in 1960, "Daughters and Rebels." Her best-seller was her second book, "The American Way of Death," in 1963, which was a critical investigation of the American funeral business. Her 1969 book was "The Trial of Dr. Spock;" her 1973 book was "Kind and Usual Punishment: The Prison Business," a critical examination of the American prison system; her 1977 book was "A Fine Old Conflict," her personal experiences as a member of the United States Communist Party in the late 1940s through the McCarthyism of the 1950s; and her 1992 book was "The American Way of Birth." She attempted to have a career as a singer, recording two albums, singing with poet Maya Angelou and the opening act for Cyndi Lauper. She died of lung cancer.