Dickey Chapelle

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Chapelle at the Don Phuc command post on the Vietnam-Cambodia border, 1964.

Dick Chapelle, born Georgette Louise Meyer (1918—November 4, 1965), was an American photojournalist known for her work as a war correspondent from World War II through the Vietnam War.

1 Early life
2 Later life
3 Books and papers by Dickey Chapelle
4 Biography
5 Awards
6 Legacy
7 External links

[edit] Early life

Chapelle was born in Shorewood, Wisconsin. 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, Chapelle managed to become a war correspondent photojournalist for National Geographic, and with one of her first assignments, was posted with the Marines during World War II.

After the war, she travelled all around the world, often going to extraordinary lengths to cover a story in any war zone. 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.

Henri Huet's poignant photograph of Chapelle receiving the last rites in Vietnam.

[edit] 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. Chapelle was killed by a 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.

[edit] 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

[edit] 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

[edit] 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

[edit] 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]