Kitty Bruce, the daughter of comedian Lenny Bruce and Harriett “Honey” Bruce, died May 13 in Pittston, Pennsylvania, following complications from a surgical procedure, her family confirmed to Variety. She was 70.
“On November 7, 1955, Kitty was born into a life that was anything but ordinary — from her very first days she entered a world already in motion, complicated, loud, and very public, shaped by forces larger than most people ever encounter,” her family wrote in a statement. “What is remarkable is not that she survived them, but what she chose to do because of them. She chose compassion. She chose service. She chose love.”
Bruce founded Lenny’s House, a sober living recovery home for women with substance use disorder that provided residents with treatment, counseling, shelter, sustenance, and critical life skills. Bruce established the nonprofit organization the Lenny Bruce Memorial Foundation in 2008, dedicated to providing lifesaving scholarships for individuals afflicted with substance use disorder. (Her father, Lenny, died of a drug overdose at 40.)
“These two endeavors were a natural extension of who Kitty was at her core: a woman driven by an abiding and unstoppable compassion for those who had nowhere else to turn,” her family wrote.
Bruce and her mother, Harriet, also spent many years advocating to clear Lenny’s name; in 1964, the comedian’s career was ended following an obscenity trial that claimed he’d violated New York’s penal code by presenting an “obscene, indecent, immoral, and impure” performance. In 2003, New York Governor George Pataki granted Lenny Bruce a posthumous pardon.
Bruce is survived by five first cousins and a circle of close friends who are described as “her extended family.” A celebration of life will be held on May 29 at Adonizio Funeral Home in Pittston, Pennsylvania. A separate memorial will take place in Los Angeles in mid-July.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Lenny Bruce Memorial Foundation.
