Michele Ingrassia Haber, of Roslyn, former Newsday writer, dies at 74

Michele Ingrassia Haber, a former Newsday journalist who covered topics ranging from politics to style to the royal family to the 10th anniversary of the Wonderbra — each, colleagues say, with a meticulous passion — died Friday after a three-year battle with cancer. She was 74.

Writing under the byline Michele Ingrassia over her 40-plus year newspaper and magazine career, she pressed all her subjects, from elected officials to fashion designers, for more and better details, people who worked with her said.

“Michele was a versatile reporter and a graceful writer who could equally cover royal weddings and local politics. Most of all, she got our readers,” former Newsday editor Howard Schneider said. “A child of geographic Long Island, born in Flushing and a resident of Roslyn, she instinctively had her hand on the pulse of what was on our readers' minds, how life was changing, what concerned them, bemused them and moved them. I never had to explain a story assignment to her twice."

Schneider said he teasingly used to call her “Myrtle of Hollis” after she moved there in the early 1970s because she embodied the “everywoman” who read Newsday.

Beginning as a political reporter at the newspaper in 1974, she covered Hempstead and Alfonse D’Amato, then a rising Republican politician there.

In 1985, Ingrassia became a fashion reporter and editor, traveling to Rome, Paris and Milan to cover the latest collections.

Former Newsday assistant managing editor Barbara Schuler marveled at her “wily” ability to get into fashion shows to bring the story back for Long Island readers.

“She had a great scope, a great ability to take on any story,” Schuler said. “Whether she was writing about a major political issue or something lighter, like the history of the Wonderbra, she approached it in the same professional, diligent, I'm-going-to-report-the-hell-out-of-this manner. She didn't go lightly on a story, just because it was fun.”

Ingrassia left Newsday in 1993 for a two-year stint as an editor at Newsweek, where her instincts and skepticism helped the magazine sniff out a hoax from a hard-luck memoir about a boy growing up in an abusive household.

She came back to Newsday in 1996 as a fashion writer, mixing style and politics with her interviews of the country’s first ladies.

Ingrassia also loved covering the royal family, her family and colleagues said.

Bruce Haber, her husband of 48 years, recalled the morning of Labor Day weekend in 1997 when they were expecting 50 people to their Roslyn home and her editors called asking her to write the obituary of Princess Diana.

“She said ‘How can I leave?’ And my daughter and I said, ‘Don’t worry about it, we got it covered,'” he said. “She eventually showed up at the end of the party, but that’s the kind of person she was. She did what she had to do.”

Former Newsday assistant managing editor Mary Ann Skinner, who met Ingrassia when they both worked late shifts, said that aside from her work ethic and her competitiveness, Ingrassia’s writing stood out in the newsroom.

“I used to say to her, if I was gonna be arrested or when I die, I want you to write my obituary, or I want you to write the story about me being arrested,” Skinner said. “She was such a beautiful writer that she would make me appear like a lovely person, and I trusted her.”

After Newsday, Ingrassia went on to write for the New York Daily News for 18-plus years. She also taught journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

She volunteered as a tutor at Literacy Nassau, eventually joining the board of directors in 2014.

Despite her ovarian cancer diagnosis, Ingrassia continued to travel widely, making treks to Africa and Italy earlier this year.

Ingrassia and her husband split their time between Roslyn and Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

In addition to her husband, Ingrassia is survived by her daughter, Jessica Haber, and son-in-law, Matthew Podell, of Westchester County;  brother, Peter Ingrassia, of Mount Sinai; half brother, James Blackie, of Alexandria, Virginia; granddaughter, Sophie; and grandson, Isaac.

A graveside service will be held for Ingrassia at Sharon Gardens in Valhalla at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Ingrassia had requested mourners make donations to the Gary Sinise Foundation for wounded veterans or the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.