Marlene Adler Marks

Marlene Adler Marks, author and longtime columnist for The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, has died. She was 54.

Mrs. Marks, who wrote the column, " A Woman ' s Voice, " died Sept. 5 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after a two-year battle with lung cancer.

Born in New York City, Mrs. Marks earned a master ' s degree in journalism from the University of Southern California. She joined the Los Angeles Daily Journal in 1969. Several years later, she went to the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, and in 1982, she launched her own monthly magazine, Los Angeles Jewish Life.

Mrs. Marks was named managing editor of The Jewish Journal in 1987 and began writing her column, which won the Rockower and Smolar awards for commentary in the field of Jewish journalism.

In recent years, she published several books, including " A Woman ' s Voice: Reflections on Love, Death, Faith, Food & Family, " a 1998 collection of her columns.

For her column, Mrs. Marks toured India as a guest of the government in 1996, when a trade agreement with Israel was in the works. She also attended an international conference on Jewish women in Kiev, Russia, in 1994, and witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Despite her failing health, Mrs. Marks continued writing and making public appearances. Mrs. Marks hosted her own interview series, " Conversations with Marlene Marks, " at the Skirball Cultural Center, where her guests included political commentators Arianna Huffington and Richard Rodriguez, author Carolyn See and Rabbi Harold Schulweis.

Mrs. Marks is survived by her daughter, Samantha; two stepchildren, Spencer and Peggye Marks; parents, Jack and Anne Adler; and brother, Alan.