Cynthia Kee (née Judah), who died in 2023 aged 94, was a journalist, television producer, and a long-time resident of Goodge Street in Fitzrovia.
Until quite late in life she would often be seen out and about with her bicycle, and she enjoyed relaxing in her garden on the roof of her Georgian terraced house above the busy shopping street where she had lived for more than 40 years.
“It is nice to have meals in the open air and chat to your neighbours on the adjoining roof,” she told The Fitzrovia News in June 2017. “You can grow all kinds of stuff — such as avocado pears, parsley, chives, tomatoes, courgettes.”
She was born in 1929 into a Baghdad Jewish family of Calcutta, West Bengal, India. Her father and mother were Ezekiel Edward Judah (1878-1965) who had married Sylvia Sarah Frank (1898-1971). Cynthia had a brother, Nigel Leopold Judah (1930-1991).
A week after Cynthia’s death, her niece Hettie Judah took to social media to commemorate the life of her “extraordinary aunt”.
An accomplished journalist, Cynthia Judah wrote for many publications including Picture Post, and Vogue. In 1960 she interviewed Simone de Beauvoir for the Observer newspaper.
De Beauvoir almost immediately said she wasn’t interested in clothes but Judah wrote that “once she had opened the door of her studio flat in Montparnasse it was evident that she must have thought about them”.
Cynthia’s own wardrobe was “legendary”, said Hettie in the tribute to her aunt. “I remember her going to Bodymap fashion shows in the 1980s. Later in life she became a great fan of TopShop and a devotee of leopard print.”
Aside from journalism, she worked as a producer for Tonight — a live current affairs programme on British TV that ran from 1957 to 1965. As a woman TV producer in the 1950s Cynthia “was a pioneer”, wrote Hettie.
In 1960, Cynthia married the journalist and broadcaster Robert Kee. Together they had three children but they divorced in 1989. Robert died in 2013.
“Cynthia was an amazingly tolerant and generous aunt to me and my siblings,” wrote Hettie.
“She’s such an inspiration to me — there was always space for interesting people at her table (though often not much food… she had the appetite of a bird and imagined others had likewise.)
“She danced salsa and Lindy-hop weekly right into her 90s.
“Cynthia — you were glorious! Here’s to you with champagne, leopard print and dancing!”
Cynthia Charlotte Kee (nee Judah) born 1929, died 2023.
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