Sally Kempton, who was once a rising star in the New York journalism world and a fierce exponent of radical feminism, but who later pivoted to a life of Eastern asceticism and spiritual practice, died on Monday at her home in Carmel, Calif. She was 80. Her brother David Kempton said the cause was heart failure, adding that she had suffered from a chronic lung condition. Ms. Kempton’s literary pedigree was impeccable. Her father was Murray Kempton, the erudite and acerbic newspaper columnist and a lion of New York journalism, the ranks of which she joined in the late 1960s as a staff writer for The Village Voice and a contributor to The New York Times. She was a sharp and talented reporter — although she sometimes felt she hadn’t properly earned her place as a journalist and owed it largely to her father’s reputation.

---

Persons: Sally Kempton, David Kempton, Murray Kempton, —, Bob Dylan, ”, Frank Zappa Organizations: New, The Village, New York Times, The Times Locations: New York, Carmel , Calif