One of the nation’s most renowned gossip columnists, Maxine Cheshire’s Washington Post column appeared in more than 300 newspapers and addressed serious topics such as the Koreagate scandal, President Kennedy’s eye for the ladies, President Nixon’s tendency to illegally keep gifts from foreign governments, and Frank Sinatra’s connections with organized crime, which fueled a running feud with the singer. She was nominated for three Pulitzer Prizes, and her investigation of Saudi Arabia’s gift of jewels to the Nixons won four investigative reporting awards. Born in Harlan in 1930, she attended the University of Kentucky before transferring to Union College, then reported for the Barbourville Mountain Advocate, the Harlan Daily Enterprise and the Knoxville News Sentinel before joining the Post as a society reporter. She began her “VIP” column for the Post in 1965.