http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/04/obituaries/04KREB.html
Albin Krebs, 73, Times Obituary Writer, Dies By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Albin Krebs, a reporter for The New York Times who specialized in writing obituaries of prominent artists, performers and politicians, died on Friday at his home in Key West, Fla. He was 73.
The cause was cancer, Robert Krebs, his nephew, said.
His obituary subjects ranged from the singing cowboy Gene Autry to the writer Truman Capote and the food authority James Beard. One of the last and most prominent of his advance obituaries to appear was that of the writer Eudora Welty, a fellow Mississippian, who died last year. More recently, his obituary of the writer Walter Lord appeared May 21.
Albin Joseph Krebs was born in Pascagoula, Miss., on March 5, 1929. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he was editor of the student newspaper, The Mississippian. After Mr. Krebs wrote editorials in 1952 advocating that black students be admitted to Ole Miss, a cross was burned outside his window. Later, he reported for Newsweek on the 1962 admission of James Meredith, the university's first black student.
He served in the Air Force for four years as a press censorship officer in Korea and Japan. After his discharge, he attended Columbia University School of Journalism, where he won a Pulitzer traveling fellowship for travel and study in Europe.
He worked for United Press International and Newsweek before joining The New York Herald Tribune, where he worked until the paper closed in 1966 after a strike. Mr. Krebs came to work at The Times shortly after that. One of his assignments in the 1980's was writing Notes on People, a column about public personalities. He joined the obituary staff in 1969 and retired in 1989.
He is survived by two sisters, Marjorie Krebs Holley and Anne Krebs Mansfield, both of Pascagoula.