On This Date In Twin Cities History - December 21, 1885

On this date in 1940, Francis Scott Key (F. Scott) Fitzgerald dies of a massive heart-attack in Hollywood, California. Regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century, his novels include This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, and Tender Is the Night. Fitzgerald was born in his parents’ apartment at 481 Laurel Avenue in St. Paul in 1896. Throughout his childhood, Fitzgerald spent time off and on in St. Paul and attended St. Paul Academy from 1908 to 1911. He and his family lived in a number of different homes in St. Paul’s Ramsey Hill neighborhood frequenting many of its establishments as well. Today, St. Paul celebrates Fitzgerald’s memory with a bronze statue of its beloved author in Rice Park.

Bronze statue of F. Scott Fitzgerald in St. Paul’s Rice Park