The total dead from the conflagration was eventually determined to be 165 people. The last victim of the fire, Barbara Thornhill of Delhi Township, died on March 1, 1978, nine months after the fire. Many early sources give the death toll as 164. Richard Whitt of the "Louisville Courier-Journal" was awarded the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Local General or Spot News Reporting for his articles on the fire. His citation reads: "For his coverage of a fire that took 164 lives at the Beverly Hills Supper Club at Southgate, Ky., and subsequent investigation of the lack of enforcement of state fire codes."