Frank McCourt dead at 78

McCourt, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his autobiographical tale of growing up in 1930s Limerick, was 78.
mcCourt died Sunday in a New York hospice as a result of meningitis, a complication that was caused by his contracting melanoma.
News of McCourt’s battle against melanoma broke in late May. He had suffered a seizure while on a Pacific cruise and had to make a quick return to the U.S.
It subsequently emerged that the author had been undergoing treatment for the skin cancer condition at Sloan Kettering in Manhattan, but in the days that followed, McCourt was sufficiently well to appear at events.
He attended the Irish Repertory Theatre Annual Benefit Gala at the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan on June 2 along with his wife, Ellen.
Brooklyn-born McCourt was well known for years in New York City writing circles before he achieved worldwide fame with “Angela’s Ashes,” an account of his childhood years in Limerick that was made into a movie and earned the onetime schoolteacher the Pulitzer award in 1997.