Mary Herczog, author of 'Merry Maladies,' dies of breast cancer at 45

Mary Herczog, author of ‘Merry Maladies,’ dies of breast cancer at 45

Feb. 17, 2010 11:36 AM PT

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Mary Herczog, a writer whose battle with breast cancer was chronicled in a series of stories in The Times and on her website, www.cancerchick.com, died Tuesday. She was 45.

Herczog, who was diagnosed with cancer at age 33, wrote about her experiences battling the disease from the late 1990s into the 2000s for The Times’ Health section.

Her varied writing career also included travel books about New Orleans and Las Vegas.

Herczog is survived by her husband, Steve Hochman, a longtime pop music writer for The Times and other publications.

The full obituary is here.

-- Claire Noland

Afterword

Claire Noland

Claire Noland, who joined the Los Angeles Times in 1994, became editor of curated email newsletters in spring 2015. She had been in the Obituary Department since 2006, the last six years as editor. Before that, she was an editor in Sports. A California native and graduate of Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles, she worked at the Antelope Valley Press, Los Angeles Daily News and Minneapolis Star Tribune. She left The Times in December 2015.

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