Dickey Chapelle, born Georgette Louise Meyer (March 14, 1918—November 4, 1965), was an American photojournalist known for her work as a war correspondent from World War II through the Vietnam War.
Contents |
Early life
Chapelle was born in Shorewood, Wisconsin and attended Shorewood High School there.[1] By the age of sixteen, she was attending aeronautical design classes at MIT. She soon returned home, where she worked at a local airfield, hoping to learn to pilot airplanes instead of merely designing them. However, when her mother learned that she was also having an affair with one of the pilots, Chapelle was forced to live in Florida with her grandparents. Eventually, she moved to New York, and met her future husband, Tony Chapelle, and began working as a photographer sponsored by Trans World Airlines. She eventually became a professional, and later, after fifteen years of marriage, divorced Tony, and changed her first name to Dickey. Despite her mediocre photographic credentials, during World War II Chapelle managed to become a war correspondent photojournalist for National Geographic, and with one of her first assignments, was posted with the Marines during the battle of Iwo Jima. She covered the battle of Okinawa as well. After the war, she travelled all around the world, often going to extraordinary lengths to cover a story in any war zone. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Chapelle was captured and jailed for over seven weeks. She later learned to jump with paratroopers, and usually travelled with troops. This led to frequent awards, and earned the respect of both the military and journalistic community.
Later life
Despite early support for Fidel Castro [1], Dickey was an outspoken anti-Communist, and loudly expressed these views at the beginning of the Vietnam War. Her stories in the early 1960s extolled the American military advisors who were already fighting and dying in South Vietnam, and the Sea Swallows, the anticommunist militia led by Father Nguyen Lac Hoa. Chapelle was killed by a tripwire landmine in Vietnam, on November 4, 1965; her last moments were captured in a photograph by Henri Huet. She became the first female war correspondent killed in Vietnam, as well as the first American female reporter to be killed during battle.
References
- ^ "Shorewood School District to honor alumni, ex-teachers", Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 7, 2003. Accessed September 17, 2007. "The other honorees are... G.L. "Dickey" (Meyer) Chapelle (Class of '35), a photojournalist who reported on wars and rebellions from World War II to Vietnam..."
Books and papers by Dickey Chapelle
- Chapelle, Dickey 1942 Needed-- women in government service. R.M. McBride ASIN B0006APU18
- Chapelle, Dickey 1943 Girls at work in aviation. Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc ASIN B0007E68ZA
- Chapelle. Dickey 1944 How planes get there, (Young America's aviation library, prepared by Aviation research associates) # Harper & brothers ASIN B0007J18NW
- Chapelle, Dickey 1962 What's a woman doing here?: A reporter's report on herself Morrow ASIN B0006AXN80
- Chapelle, Dickey 1962 How Castro Won. In: Modern Guerrilla WarFare Fighting Communist Guerrilla Movements (Franklin Mark Osanka editor). Free Press of Glencoe (Macmillan) NY. 325-335.
- Wisconsin State Historical Society, Archives Division. The Dickey Chapelle Papers, 1933-1967. Madison, WI
Biography
Deakman, Elizabeth. "Dickey Chapelle's Lifelong Quest...." Vietnam (Spring 1989): pp. 8 & 61 64. Per.Female war correspondent/photographer, WWII & VN, with US Marines. Reportedly the first woman journalist KIA taken from MILITARY WOMEN SINCE WWII carlisle-www.army.mil/usamhi/Bibliographies/ ReferenceBibliographies/JournalismMedia/since1941.doc Ostroff, Roberta 2001 Fire In The Wind: The Life of Dickey Chapelle Bluejacket Books ISBN 1-55750-419-9
Awards
- Overseas Press Club's George Polk Award for best reporting in any medium, requiring exceptional courage and enterprise abroad
- National Press Photographers Association 1963 "Photograph of the Year" award for her photograph of a combat-ready marine in Vietnam
- Distinguished Service Award, presented by the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association
Legacy
- Dickey Chapelle features as the subject of a song by Nanci Griffith in collaboration with the folk duo The Kennedys.
- In June 2004, Variety reported that Warner Bros. and production company Plan B intend to develop a biopic about Chapelle starring Jennifer Aniston. [2]
External links
- Biography at photobetty.com
- Dickey Chapelle collection at the Wisconsin Historical Society - Over 15,000 documents, 17,000 negatives and 6,000 prints pertaining to Chapelle's career.
