Kitty Fitzgibbon, a longtime Wilmington actress known locally for her decades as a TV and radio personality, died unexpectedly Saturday. She was 66.
Friends and family members said Fitzgibbon may have suffered a stroke sometime Friday night. She later passed away at New Hanover Regional Medical Center.
"You cannot write the history of Wilmington broadcasting without her," wrote Craig Thomas in a Facebook post. Thomas did the "Craig and Kitty in the Morning" show on radio station WGNI with Fitzgibbon for close to a decade,
"She was the most giving mom in the whole world. The strongest woman I've ever known," said Fitzgibbon's son, Vance Smith. "She taught me the value of every life and every person."
Her daughter, Nana Ramos, said "she was a pistol," adding that she'd been hearing "hilarious stories" from people who'd worked with her mother in plays.
On Saturday evening, members of Wilmington's theatrical community expressed shock and offered remembrances of Fitzgibbon's big personality -- and memorable performances -- on social media after learning of her passing.
Fitzgibbon was twice nominated for Best Actress in a Play at the StarNews Wilmington Theater Awards, most recently in 2019 for playing the vicious, vituperative Violet Venable in Tennessee Williams' drama "Suddenly, Last Summer" at Thalian Hall.
Her final turn on stage came in March, during in a shortened run of the play "The Book of Will" at the Cape Fear Playhouse. The show closed after one weekend due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Don Baker was a close friend of Fitzgibbon's, both appearing with her on stage and directing her in a number of plays over the past two decades, including in "The Rocky Horror Show," "The Diviners" and "Suddenly, Last Summer."
"She always said we were married three times and never divorced," Baker said, because they played married couples in three plays, including two by Sam Shepard ("Buried Child" and "A Lie of the Mind").
Fitzgibbon was known for her range as an actress, excelling in both drama and, especially, comedy. Her Violet Venable was a great villain, but worlds away from the cantankerous but caring Southern widow Mattie Rigsbee in "Walking Across Egypt," based on the novel by Clyde Edgerton, a role that scored her another Best Actress nomination at the Theater Awards in 2017. (From the StarNews review: "Fitzgibbon hits the play's ample humor, but she also gives form to Mattie's compassion, building to a big emotional payoff near the end of the show.")
Fitzgibbon also scored occasional parts in both independent films and big-budget pictures, including a role as June, a newscaster, in 1990's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
Fitzgibbon was born to Anne and Daniel Fitzgibbon in Massachusetts in 1953. According to a 2003 profile in the StarNews, Fitzgibbon essentially grew up in the theater. Her mother taught drama at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and young Kitty attended many a rehearsal with her mom.
Fitzgibbon lived in Savannah and Chapel Hill as a child, settling in Wilmington as a teenager after her mother moved here.
Her first job in broadcasting was for WAAV AM radio's "Talk of the Town" show. She then spent 11 years as a reporter and weather anchor at WWAY TV3.
Ultimately, Fitzgibbon said, "I just got completely burned out" on TV. She then shifted back to radio, where she could be less "by the book," as she put it.
She was a familiar voice for Wilmington station WGNI for years, many of them on the show "Craig and Kitty in the Morning," which she started doing with Craig Thomas in 1998.
She was also the "Goddess of Ceremonies" at fundraisers for the Rape Crisis Center of Coastal Horizons Center, Inc., for a number of years.
And while she made her mark in the arts, she also had a deep interest in science. For much of her life, Fitzgibbon said in the 2003 profile, she was "a closet forensic anthropologist ... I literally had skeletons in my closet."
As a child, she liked to find skeletons of squirrels, snakes or other animals and study them.
Credit: Star News
Friends and family members said Fitzgibbon may have suffered a stroke sometime Friday night. She later passed away at New Hanover Regional Medical Center.
"You cannot write the history of Wilmington broadcasting without her," wrote Craig Thomas in a Facebook post. Thomas did the "Craig and Kitty in the Morning" show on radio station WGNI with Fitzgibbon for close to a decade,
"She was the most giving mom in the whole world. The strongest woman I've ever known," said Fitzgibbon's son, Vance Smith. "She taught me the value of every life and every person."
Her daughter, Nana Ramos, said "she was a pistol," adding that she'd been hearing "hilarious stories" from people who'd worked with her mother in plays.
On Saturday evening, members of Wilmington's theatrical community expressed shock and offered remembrances of Fitzgibbon's big personality -- and memorable performances -- on social media after learning of her passing.
Fitzgibbon was twice nominated for Best Actress in a Play at the StarNews Wilmington Theater Awards, most recently in 2019 for playing the vicious, vituperative Violet Venable in Tennessee Williams' drama "Suddenly, Last Summer" at Thalian Hall.
Her final turn on stage came in March, during in a shortened run of the play "The Book of Will" at the Cape Fear Playhouse. The show closed after one weekend due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Don Baker was a close friend of Fitzgibbon's, both appearing with her on stage and directing her in a number of plays over the past two decades, including in "The Rocky Horror Show," "The Diviners" and "Suddenly, Last Summer."
"She always said we were married three times and never divorced," Baker said, because they played married couples in three plays, including two by Sam Shepard ("Buried Child" and "A Lie of the Mind").
Fitzgibbon was known for her range as an actress, excelling in both drama and, especially, comedy. Her Violet Venable was a great villain, but worlds away from the cantankerous but caring Southern widow Mattie Rigsbee in "Walking Across Egypt," based on the novel by Clyde Edgerton, a role that scored her another Best Actress nomination at the Theater Awards in 2017. (From the StarNews review: "Fitzgibbon hits the play's ample humor, but she also gives form to Mattie's compassion, building to a big emotional payoff near the end of the show.")
Fitzgibbon also scored occasional parts in both independent films and big-budget pictures, including a role as June, a newscaster, in 1990's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
Fitzgibbon was born to Anne and Daniel Fitzgibbon in Massachusetts in 1953. According to a 2003 profile in the StarNews, Fitzgibbon essentially grew up in the theater. Her mother taught drama at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and young Kitty attended many a rehearsal with her mom.
Fitzgibbon lived in Savannah and Chapel Hill as a child, settling in Wilmington as a teenager after her mother moved here.
Her first job in broadcasting was for WAAV AM radio's "Talk of the Town" show. She then spent 11 years as a reporter and weather anchor at WWAY TV3.
Ultimately, Fitzgibbon said, "I just got completely burned out" on TV. She then shifted back to radio, where she could be less "by the book," as she put it.
She was a familiar voice for Wilmington station WGNI for years, many of them on the show "Craig and Kitty in the Morning," which she started doing with Craig Thomas in 1998.
She was also the "Goddess of Ceremonies" at fundraisers for the Rape Crisis Center of Coastal Horizons Center, Inc., for a number of years.
And while she made her mark in the arts, she also had a deep interest in science. For much of her life, Fitzgibbon said in the 2003 profile, she was "a closet forensic anthropologist ... I literally had skeletons in my closet."
As a child, she liked to find skeletons of squirrels, snakes or other animals and study them.
Credit: Star News
Kitty Fitzgibbon, a longtime Wilmington actress known locally for her decades as a TV and radio personality, died unexpectedly Saturday. She was 66.
Friends and family members said Fitzgibbon may have suffered a stroke sometime Friday night. She later passed away at New Hanover Regional Medical Center.
"You cannot write the history of Wilmington broadcasting without her," wrote Craig Thomas in a Facebook post. Thomas did the "Craig and Kitty in the Morning" show on radio station WGNI with Fitzgibbon for close to a decade,
"She was the most giving mom in the whole world. The strongest woman I've ever known," said Fitzgibbon's son, Vance Smith. "She taught me the value of every life and every person."
Her daughter, Nana Ramos, said "she was a pistol," adding that she'd been hearing "hilarious stories" from people who'd worked with her mother in plays.
On Saturday evening, members of Wilmington's theatrical community expressed shock and offered remembrances of Fitzgibbon's big personality -- and memorable performances -- on social media after learning of her passing.
Fitzgibbon was twice nominated for Best Actress in a Play at the StarNews Wilmington Theater Awards, most recently in 2019 for playing the vicious, vituperative Violet Venable in Tennessee Williams' drama "Suddenly, Last Summer" at Thalian Hall.
Her final turn on stage came in March, during in a shortened run of the play "The Book of Will" at the Cape Fear Playhouse. The show closed after one weekend due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Don Baker was a close friend of Fitzgibbon's, both appearing with her on stage and directing her in a number of plays over the past two decades, including in "The Rocky Horror Show," "The Diviners" and "Suddenly, Last Summer."
"She always said we were married three times and never divorced," Baker said, because they played married couples in three plays, including two by Sam Shepard ("Buried Child" and "A Lie of the Mind").
Fitzgibbon was known for her range as an actress, excelling in both drama and, especially, comedy. Her Violet Venable was a great villain, but worlds away from the cantankerous but caring Southern widow Mattie Rigsbee in "Walking Across Egypt," based on the novel by Clyde Edgerton, a role that scored her another Best Actress nomination at the Theater Awards in 2017. (From the StarNews review: "Fitzgibbon hits the play's ample humor, but she also gives form to Mattie's compassion, building to a big emotional payoff near the end of the show.")
Fitzgibbon also scored occasional parts in both independent films and big-budget pictures, including a role as June, a newscaster, in 1990's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
Fitzgibbon was born to Anne and Daniel Fitzgibbon in Massachusetts in 1953. According to a 2003 profile in the StarNews, Fitzgibbon essentially grew up in the theater. Her mother taught drama at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and young Kitty attended many a rehearsal with her mom.
Fitzgibbon lived in Savannah and Chapel Hill as a child, settling in Wilmington as a teenager after her mother moved here.
Her first job in broadcasting was for WAAV AM radio's "Talk of the Town" show. She then spent 11 years as a reporter and weather anchor at WWAY TV3.
Ultimately, Fitzgibbon said, "I just got completely burned out" on TV. She then shifted back to radio, where she could be less "by the book," as she put it.
She was a familiar voice for Wilmington station WGNI for years, many of them on the show "Craig and Kitty in the Morning," which she started doing with Craig Thomas in 1998.
She was also the "Goddess of Ceremonies" at fundraisers for the Rape Crisis Center of Coastal Horizons Center, Inc., for a number of years.
And while she made her mark in the arts, she also had a deep interest in science. For much of her life, Fitzgibbon said in the 2003 profile, she was "a closet forensic anthropologist ... I literally had skeletons in my closet."
As a child, she liked to find skeletons of squirrels, snakes or other animals and study them.
Credit: Star News
Friends and family members said Fitzgibbon may have suffered a stroke sometime Friday night. She later passed away at New Hanover Regional Medical Center.
"You cannot write the history of Wilmington broadcasting without her," wrote Craig Thomas in a Facebook post. Thomas did the "Craig and Kitty in the Morning" show on radio station WGNI with Fitzgibbon for close to a decade,
"She was the most giving mom in the whole world. The strongest woman I've ever known," said Fitzgibbon's son, Vance Smith. "She taught me the value of every life and every person."
Her daughter, Nana Ramos, said "she was a pistol," adding that she'd been hearing "hilarious stories" from people who'd worked with her mother in plays.
On Saturday evening, members of Wilmington's theatrical community expressed shock and offered remembrances of Fitzgibbon's big personality -- and memorable performances -- on social media after learning of her passing.
Fitzgibbon was twice nominated for Best Actress in a Play at the StarNews Wilmington Theater Awards, most recently in 2019 for playing the vicious, vituperative Violet Venable in Tennessee Williams' drama "Suddenly, Last Summer" at Thalian Hall.
Her final turn on stage came in March, during in a shortened run of the play "The Book of Will" at the Cape Fear Playhouse. The show closed after one weekend due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Don Baker was a close friend of Fitzgibbon's, both appearing with her on stage and directing her in a number of plays over the past two decades, including in "The Rocky Horror Show," "The Diviners" and "Suddenly, Last Summer."
"She always said we were married three times and never divorced," Baker said, because they played married couples in three plays, including two by Sam Shepard ("Buried Child" and "A Lie of the Mind").
Fitzgibbon was known for her range as an actress, excelling in both drama and, especially, comedy. Her Violet Venable was a great villain, but worlds away from the cantankerous but caring Southern widow Mattie Rigsbee in "Walking Across Egypt," based on the novel by Clyde Edgerton, a role that scored her another Best Actress nomination at the Theater Awards in 2017. (From the StarNews review: "Fitzgibbon hits the play's ample humor, but she also gives form to Mattie's compassion, building to a big emotional payoff near the end of the show.")
Fitzgibbon also scored occasional parts in both independent films and big-budget pictures, including a role as June, a newscaster, in 1990's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
Fitzgibbon was born to Anne and Daniel Fitzgibbon in Massachusetts in 1953. According to a 2003 profile in the StarNews, Fitzgibbon essentially grew up in the theater. Her mother taught drama at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and young Kitty attended many a rehearsal with her mom.
Fitzgibbon lived in Savannah and Chapel Hill as a child, settling in Wilmington as a teenager after her mother moved here.
Her first job in broadcasting was for WAAV AM radio's "Talk of the Town" show. She then spent 11 years as a reporter and weather anchor at WWAY TV3.
Ultimately, Fitzgibbon said, "I just got completely burned out" on TV. She then shifted back to radio, where she could be less "by the book," as she put it.
She was a familiar voice for Wilmington station WGNI for years, many of them on the show "Craig and Kitty in the Morning," which she started doing with Craig Thomas in 1998.
She was also the "Goddess of Ceremonies" at fundraisers for the Rape Crisis Center of Coastal Horizons Center, Inc., for a number of years.
And while she made her mark in the arts, she also had a deep interest in science. For much of her life, Fitzgibbon said in the 2003 profile, she was "a closet forensic anthropologist ... I literally had skeletons in my closet."
As a child, she liked to find skeletons of squirrels, snakes or other animals and study them.
Credit: Star News
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