Dixie Tighe

Dixie Tighe
Dixie Tighe in 1943 - official war correspondents were issued uniforms so they would qualify for POW status, if captured.
Born	(1905-05-23)May 23, 1905 Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.
Died	December 31, 1946(1946-12-31) (aged 41) Tokyo, Japan
Occupations	Reporter, war correspondent

Dixie Tighe (May 23, 1905 - December 31, 1946) was an American war correspondent. ^{[1] [2]}

Biography

Tighe's father had been a reporter, and she followed in his footsteps in 1925. ^[3]

Prior to World War II, her assignments included covering the trial of Bruno Hauptman, the kidnapper of the Lindbergh baby, and "stunt reporting", including reporting on her scuba-diving and skydiving lessons. ^{[3] [4]}

Tighe worked for INS and New York Post during World War II. ^[5]

Nancy Caldwell Sorel, author of a book on female war correspondents, described her as "famous for her blunt language and flamboyant lifestyle". ^[6]

Female war correspondents were rare, and she was the first female correspondent to ride on a bomber during a bombing mission. ^[1] Tighe and another female correspondent were denied permission to accompany paratroopers on D-Day, being told the jolt of a parachute could "damage their 'delicate female apparatus', causing vaginal bleeding".

Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson honored war correspondents during an event in Washington, D.C., on November 23, 1946. ^[7] Tighe was one of the correspondents he honored.

Tighe was struck by a severe headache at an event for correspondents in Tokyo on December 27, 1946. ^[8] She was taken to the hospital for examination, where she suffered a stroke, and died five days later, on December 31, 1946. ^[3]

President Harry Truman honored five living female journalists at an event on April 20, 1947, and gave a posthumous award honoring Tighe to her mother. ^[9]

Tighe in 1943 with other female war correspondents who covered the U.S. Army in the European Theater during World War II; from left to right: Mary Welsh, Dixie Tighe, Kathleen Harriman, Helen Kirkpatrick, Lee Miller, and Tania Long

References

1. "World War II". Library of Congress . Archived from the original on 2020-10-19. Retrieved 2020-11-24. Correspondence with Hobby may also be found in the papers of high-ranking Air Force officer and aviation pioneer Ira Eaker, who supported the training of women pilots; who successfully lobbied Hobby and his superiors for a WAC Company to be assigned to his command, first in England and later near the front in Italy; and, who, despite his own reservations, put before his commanders the request of Dixie Tighe, a woman war correspondent who wanted to go on a bomber mission as her male counterparts had.
2. Lyse Doucet (2014-06-04). "The women reporters determined to cover World War Two". BBC News . Retrieved 2020-11-24.
3. "DIXIE TIGHE, NOTED AS WAR REPORTER; Correspondent for New York Post Dies in Tokyo--Wrote on Major Crime Trials Worked on Varied Stories Tried Stunt Reporting". The New York Times . Tokyo. 1946-12-31. p. 17. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
4. Vicki Lee Brumagin (June 1972). "A study of women in American journalism from 1696 to 1972". California State University, Northridge . p. 176-177. Archived from the original on 2020-11-25. Retrieved 2020-11-24. Another press representative who detailed the Hauptmann story was Dixie Tighe. Dixie, working for International News Service {I.N.S.), and Evelyn Shuler, of the Philadelphia Ledger, were ·the only women who wrote the lead stories on the trial for their respective employers. However, Dixie's real specialty was of another sort; her real flair was in the foreign correspondence field.
5. Natasha Simpson (2020-04-01). "The "Woman's Angle" and Beyond: Allied Women War Reporters during the Second World War" (PDF). University of Victoria . pp. 18, 73. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-11-25. Retrieved 2020-11-24. However, when American women reporters Betty Gaskill and Dixie Tighe and Briton Judy Barden requested to go, Eisenhower's press aide informed them that 'the sharp jolt of the exploding parachute canopy' could damage their ''delicate female apparatus,'' causing vaginal bleeding.'
6. Nancy Caldwell Sorel (1999). "The Women Who Wrote the War: The Riveting Saga of World War II's Daredevil Women Correspondents". Arcade Publishing. p. 171. ISBN   9781559704939 . Retrieved 2020-11-24.
7. "TASK OF OCCUPATION DECLARED IN PERIL; Patterson at Dinner Honoring War Correspondents Says More Appropriations Are Needed". The New York Times . Washington DC. 1946-11-23. p. 28. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
8. "New York Writer III in Tokyo". The New York Times . Tokyo. 1946-12-28. p. 5. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
9. "PRESS WOMEN GIVE 'NATIONAL CIRCUS'; Trumans View Skits in Which They Are Spoofed -- 6 Honor Awards Are Conferred". The New York Times . Washington DC. 1947-04-20. p. 20. Retrieved 2020-11-26.