From a post on infomory.com headlined “Famous Journalists Killed”:
Ernie Pyle
Ernest Taylor Pyle better known as Ernie Pyle was born near Dana, Indiana on August 3, 1900. He died in Le Shima, off Okinawa Island by Japanese machine gun fire. From 1935 until his death, he was a roving correspondent for Scripps Howard newspapers chain during World War II. What he wrote in wars is preserved in his four books; Ernie Pyle in England, Here is your War, Brave Men and Last Chapter. Pyle and Coolidge who had taken shelter into a ditch to protect themselves from enemy fire, raised their heads from a ditch. Pyle smiled and asked , ‘ Are you all right?’ and those were his last words. Machine gun fire killed him on the spot.
Marie Colvin
Marie Catherine Colvin better known as Marie Colvin was born in Astoria, Oyster Bay, New York, US on January 12, 1956 and died in Homs, Syria on February 22, 2012 at the age of 56. She received her early education at Oyster Bay High School and graduated from Yale University, receiving her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Anthropology in 1978. She worked for The Sunday Times beginning in 1985 and covered Siege of Homs in Syria. She had covered many hotspots and she was credited for saving lives of 1,500 women and children in a besieged compound of East Timor in 1999, by not leaving the compound and continuing the coverage from within. She won the International Women’s Media Foundation award for courage while covering Kosovo and Chehnya. She lost sight in her left eye during a rocket propelled grenade attack by the Sri Lankan Army. Marrie Colvin and Remi Ochlik died on February 22, 2012 while trying to escape from a building, being shelled by the Syrian Army.
Robert Capa
Engre Erno Friedmann better known as Robert Capa was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary on October 22, 1913. He died in Thai Binh, State of Vietnam on May 25, 1954 at the age of 40. He was a Hungarian combat photojournalist who covered Spanish Civil War, Second Sino- Japanese War, World War II, 1948 Arab- Israel War and First Indo China War. His action photographs of Battle of Normandy and other wars are unique and of historic value. He was assigned by Life Magazine to cover First Indochina War, along with two other Life Journalists, John Mecklin and Jim Lucas. On May 25, 1945 at 2:55 while passing through a dangerous area under fire, he stepped out of the jeep for a better view and stepped onto a landmine. Hearing the explosion, his other two colleagues reached at the spot to find him with left leg blown and chest wounded. Prior to reaching the small field hospital Robert Capa expired with the camera in his hand.
Michelle Lang
She was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on January 31, 1975. She was killed in Kandhar, Afghanistan on December 30, 2009. She was educated at Magee Secondary School and Simon Fraser University. She started her career as reporter at Prince George’s Free Press. She switched over to few other jobs prior to settling herself at The Calgary Herald. In 2008 she won a National Newspaper Award. She was assigned by Herald and Canwest News Service for six weeks, to cover and report Afghanistan affairs. A roadside planted bomb struck the armored military vehicle which she was riding. She was severely wounded and did not survive.
Elijah Parish Lovejoy
He was born in Maine on November 9, 1802 and died in Alton, Illinois on November 7, 1837 at the young age of 34. He was a journalist and a newspaper editor of the newspaper ‘St.Louis Observer’. He also ran a school. He owned a press in Illinois and made full use of it against slavery. Although the pro-slavery lobby destroyed his three presses, one after the other, he continued saying, writing and publishing fearlessly. A pro-slavery mob attacked his press the fourth time in Alton on November 7, 1837 because he was printing The Alton Observer- an anti-slavery, abolitionist newspaper on his press. Elijah Parish Lovejoy and his supporters exchanged gunfire and Lovejoy was shot fatally during this exchange. Upon his death- being shot for the noble cause of anti-slavery- people hailed him as a martyr. Lovejoy’s brother Owen entered into politics after his death and lead the Illinois abolitionists.
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