How Dorothy Parker Came To Rest In Baltimore : NPR

How Dorothy Parker Came To Rest In Baltimore : NPR: The writer, poet and critic Dorothy Parker was technically not a native New Yorker; she was born at her family's beach cottage in New Jersey. But she always considered New York City to be her beloved hometown. It's where she grew up, where she struggled during her early days as a writer, where she became famous, and where she died of a heart attack at the age of 73.

Today, her ashes can be found not in New York, but in Baltimore at the headquarters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which is located on the outskirts of the city and surrounded by a corporate office park.

The story of how this New Yorker ended up in Baltimore starts with Parker's unusual last will and testament, explains James Murray, the librarian and archivist at the NAACP.

"In her will, she stated that Martin Luther King should be the one to have her estate," he says.