US columnist, author Jeffrey Zaslow dies in car crash

DETROIT (Reuters) - Jeffrey Zaslow, co-author of the best-seller "The Last Lecture" and an award-winning Wall Street Journal columnist, was killed on Friday in a car crash in Michigan, the newspaper said.

Zaslow, 53, who was married to Detroit news anchor Sherry Margolis, had been in Petoskey, Michigan, on Thursday night for a book promotion and was driving back toward the Detroit area when the crash happened.

"Jeff's writing, for the Journal and in his books, has been a source of inspiration for many people around the world, and his journalistic life has been a source of inspiration for all journalists," Journal editor Robert Thomson said in a message to staff on Friday.

Antrim County Sheriff Daniel Bean released few details of the accident, reporting that a passenger car had lost control on a snow-covered road and slid into the path of a tractor-trailer, and that the car's driver died on impact.

Zaslow collaborated with former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords and her husband last year on a memoir about her path to recovery from a gunshot wound to the head suffered when a man opened fire at a constituent event in Tucson, Arizona, in January 2011, killing six people and wounding 12.

He also co-authored a book, "Highest Duty," with US Airways Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who landed an airliner in the Hudson River after its engines were knocked out on takeoff with all passengers and crew rescued.

But Zaslow may be remembered most for "The Last Lecture," a New York Times best-seller that grew out of Carnegie Mellon computer science professor Randy Pausch's speech on death and living as he faced terminal cancer in 2007.

Zaslow, who is survived by his wife and three daughters, was promoting his latest book on Thursday night, "The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters."

(Reporting by David Bailey; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Cooney)