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SPEAKER_01: This month of Encyclopedia Wamanica is brought to you by Macy's. Macy's is committed to honoring the gifts, voices, and legacies of Black people throughout February and year round. You can shop Black owned businesses available at Macy's at macy's.com slash honors. And head to that link to donate to a range of charities that empower Black youth. It's just one way Macy's is demonstrating an ongoing commitment to inclusivity in everything they do. Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Encyclopedia Wamanica. Today we're talking about the only woman to serve as a war correspondent during the Korean War. Unrelenting in her desire to capture the events of frontline combat, she reported on many of the 20th century's most momentous conflicts and earned the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. Let's talk about Marguerite Higgins. Marguerite Higgins was born to Laurence Daniel Higgins and Marguerite de Godard on September 3rd, 1920 in Hong Kong. Marguerite's father was an American who joined the French Army as an ambulance driver in Paris when the First World War broke out. Her mother was a French local who was in Paris for work. The two met one day during an air raid. They both took shelter in an underground metro station. Both Lawrence and Marguerite had adventurous streaks, a quality they would eventually pass on to their only daughter. After they wed, Lawrence got a job with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and the couple moved to Hong Kong, where they lived for five years. Then in 1925, the family moved back to Lawrence's native California. Settling down turned out to be harder for the Higgins family than anticipated. Lawrence became a stockbroker, but thanks to the Great Depression, money was tight. Marguerite's mother taught French at a prestigious all-girls school, where Marguerite was offered a scholarship. By the age of 16, Marguerite decided she wanted to become a journalist and never looked back. In 1937, she enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley and immediately joined the staff of the student newspaper, The Daily Californian. Marguerite was a tenacious journalist from the get-go. She worked doggedly for the school paper and was even accused of stealing leads from fellow students, anything to get the story. She graduated from Berkeley with honors and packed her bags for New York City. She applied for every newspaper in the city for work, but no one was willing to hire a woman fresh out of college. Undaunted, she decided to pursue a master's degree at the Columbia School of Journalism. While balancing a part-time job and school, she managed to nab an interview with Madame Chiang Kai-shek, the wife of the nationalist leader of China. The interview was such an impressive get that Marguerite was offered a full-time job as a news reporter for The Tribune. Around this time, Marguerite married Stanley Moore, a philosophy student who shared Marguerite's politics and intellectual drive. Shortly after they married, Stanley joined the Air Force and was sent to Europe. It was the height of World War II and Marguerite was stuck covering stories at home, but longed to be on the front lines in Europe. After petitioning her editor relentlessly, she was given an overseas assignment. The Tribune sent her to London, which, by chance, was where her husband was stationed. The couple lived together as Marguerite covered bombings, Winston Churchill, the role of women in the war, and much more. While her stories flourished, her marriage did not. Within a year, Marguerite and Stanley were formally separated. Thanks to her fluency in French, Marguerite's next post was in Paris. While she was there, she captured on-the-ground accounts of war-torn France. But still, she longed to be on the front lines of the action. In March of 1945, she got her wish. Marguerite joined the U.S. 7th Army positioned in Germany to report firsthand on the final weeks of the war. She documented the Americans freeing Polish, French, and Russian laborers from German concentration camps. She arrived in the Buchenwald concentration camp only hours after it was liberated. She filed stories depicting the mass suffering and devastating deaths in the camp, as well as stories from survivors. From there, Marguerite partnered up with journalist Peter First from the Army newspaper Stars and Stripes. The two traveled through the German countryside and arrived at the Dachau concentration camp. According to Marguerite's report from the time, and later confirmed by her biographer, Marguerite and Peter were the first two Americans through the gates, marking the formal liberation of the camp. For her courageous covering of Dachau, Marguerite was awarded the Army's campaign ribbon for outstanding and conspicuous service with the armed forces under difficult and hazardous conditions. She was also given an award by the New York newspaper Women's Club for best correspondence. All in, Marguerite was only a World War II correspondent for approximately six weeks. Regardless, she made quite the impact. After the war, she was made the Tribune's assistant bureau chief in Berlin. From her post, she covered a divided Berlin, the beginnings of the Cold War, and the Nuremberg Trials. In 1947, at only 27 years old, Marguerite was promoted to full bureau chief. She enjoyed a successful career in Berlin throughout the remainder of the 1940s. In April of 1950, Marguerite was reassigned and became the Tokyo bureau chief for the Tribune. She was not happy about this move. It took her thousands of miles away from mounting tensions in Europe. But on June 25th, 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea, launching the United States into a proxy war with Communist China. Within two days, Marguerite was on the front lines of the conflict. From the moment she landed in Seoul, Marguerite was regularly under fire. It was during these early days that she earned the trust of General Douglas MacArthur, the commander of the United Nations Far East Forces. In addition to being in a live combat environment, Marguerite had to navigate company politics. A few weeks after Marguerite arrived, the New York Herald Tribune sent its star reporter, Homer Biggert, to cover the war. Biggert told Marguerite she was no longer needed and might as well head home. But Marguerite wasn't having it. She ignored him and continued covering the conflict. That is, until she hit another roadblock. Marguerite was in the midst of combat when she received orders from the US Army to leave Korea at once. The Lieutenant General, Walton H. Walker, had decided that Korea was no place for a woman. Marguerite intended to argue her case to Lieutenant Walker, but was forcibly put on a plane to Tokyo. When she landed, she was greeted with good news. General MacArthur wrote a personal message overturning the Lieutenant's orders. It read, ban on women in Korea lifted. Marguerite Higgins held in highest professional esteem by everyone. Marguerite returned to Korea and continued her work as the only female journalist covering the war. She escaped nearly certain death in a nighttime ambush and even volunteered to assist overwhelmed medics when troops were particularly distressed. Marguerite traveled to North Korea and documented the stories of escaped prisoners of war. She also teamed up with the Chicago Daily News correspondent, Keyes Beach, for several excursions. In 1951, Marguerite returned to the United States. She married Major General William Hall, who she'd met while serving as Berlin's Bureau Chief. Together, they had two children. That same year, Marguerite was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. Her colleagues in the Korean theater, Homer Biggert and Keyes Beach, also received the honor. Marguerite went on to write a bestselling book, War in Korea, The Report of a Woman Combat Correspondent. In 1955, she wrote another book about her travels through the Soviet Union called Red Plush and Black Bread. That same year, she published a book about journalism entitled News is a Singular Thing. Marguerite never showed signs of slowing down. She visited Vietnam 10 times during the Vietnam War and wrote a book on the conflict, Our Vietnam Nightmare. In 1962, she reported on tensions mounting between the United States and Cuba that proved prescient. During Marguerite's final visit to Vietnam in 1965, she contracted leishmaniasis, a tropical parasitic disease. She passed away from the disease on January 3rd, 1966. She was just 45 years old. In honor of her exceptional wartime reporting, her body was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. Tenacious and unrelenting in her ambition, Marguerite Higgins blazed a trail uniquely her own. At a time when American society was uncomfortable with women filling roles typically performed by men, Marguerite refused to take no for an answer and proved her bravery and skill in the face of immense danger. All month, we're talking about journalists. For more on why we're doing what we're doing, check out our newsletter, Womanica Weekly. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Encyclopedia Womanica. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. As always, we'll be taking a break for the weekend. Talk to you on Monday. I wanna tell you about another WMN show I think you'll love. Most Americans know firmly where they stand on reproductive rights. But how did we get here? How did abortion become one of the most contentious political debates in the country? That's where Ordinary Equality comes in. From Wonder Media Network, Ordinary Equality co-hosts, Jameah Wilson and Kate Kelly, are unpacking the history of abortion. From before the founding fathers to Roe v. Wade, all the way to present day. They're seeking to understand why everything related to women's rights does indeed seem to come back to abortion. And how abortion access is tied to our fundamental rights and freedoms even more than you think. Listen and subscribe to Ordinary Equality wherever you get your podcasts.
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