{"id":236821,"date":"2026-07-06T17:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T17:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/236821\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T17:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T17:19:13","slug":"shirley-kitchen-longtime-pa-lawmaker-dies-at-79","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/236821\/","title":{"rendered":"Shirley Kitchen, longtime PA lawmaker, dies at 79"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Former state Sen. Shirley M. Kitchen, a trailblazing legislator who spent two decades representing North Philadelphia in Harrisburg and who broke barriers when elected to the Pennsylvania Senate, has died at the age of 79.\n<\/p>\n

Kitchen\u2019s death was announced Sunday, prompting an outpouring of tributes from elected officials, former colleagues and community leaders who remembered her as a relentless advocate for underserved neighborhoods and a mentor to generations of Philadelphia politicians.\n<\/p>\n

Mayor Cherelle Parker<\/a> called Kitchen \u201ca powerful, effective advocate for her constituents and for all of Philadelphia.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\u201cFood insecurity, health care, public transportation, restorative justice, voting rights \u2014 Senator Kitchen was always on the front lines on important issues, fighting for people who often had no one else to fight for them,\u201d Parker said in a post on social media<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania state Rep. Kenyatta Johnson, who served as a legislative aide in Kitchen\u2019s state Senate office, called her an \u201cicon\u201d as well as \u201ca mentor, a friend, a surrogate grandmother\u201d to him, adding that \u201cno one did more to make good on this country\u2019s promises than Shirley Kitchen did in North Philadelphia.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cSenator Kitchen never forgot who she was fighting for, and she dedicated her life to making sure families had greater access to opportunity, quality healthcare<\/a>, education, and a government that worked for everyone,\u201d he said in a social media post<\/a>. \u201cToday is so hard.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Born in Augusta, Georgia, on Sept. 18, 1946, Kitchen moved to Philadelphia as a child and was educated in the city\u2019s public schools. She received her undergraduate degree from Antioch College and later attended Temple University. She became a social worker<\/a> before serving as director of constituent services for then-Philadelphia City Council President John F. Street.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31563,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-236821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pa-state-senate","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}