Author Tony Hillerman dies At 83
Published 9:46 pm Sunday, October 26, 2008
PHOENIX — Tony Hillerman, author of the acclaimed Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels, has died of pulmonary failure. He was 83.
Hillerman’s daughter, Anne Hillerman, says her father’s health had been declining in the last couple years and he was at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque when he died at about 3 p.m. today.
Hillerman lived through two heart attacks and surgeries for prostate and bladder cancer. He kept tapping at his keyboard even as his eyes dimmed, his hearing faded and rheumatoid arthritis turned his hands into claws.
He said in 2002 that he was getting old, “but I still like to write.”
Hillerman is survived by his wife, Marie, and six children. Services are pending.
