32 FEBRUARY 2019 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
TO BEAR WITNESS -
ASTORIA’S MARIE COLVIN
Marie Colvin: “How do
I keep my craft alive in a
world that doesn’t value
it? I feel like I am the last
reporter in the YouTube
world.”
Known in every major war
zone around the world garnering her
awards in journalism and renown in her
adopted home, England, she was almost
unknown in her native country. Marie was
born in Astoria, Queens, where her mother,
Rosemary grew up and met her father,
Bill, a Fordham graduate. The family later
moved to Long Island where he sister and
mother remain.
An independent and strong-willed
young lady she was a creature of her
time smoking pot with her friends, yet
displaying her drive and intellect early on.
When she discovered that, abroad as an
exchange student she missed her dead-lines
for college admission, she drove to
Yale’s New Haven campus with her high
school transcripts and college boards – a
perfect 1600. She gained admittance.
Marie Colvin: “Bravery is not be-ing
afraid to be afraid.”
At Yale she became friends with Bobby
Shriver, the son of Sargent Shriver, the
founder of the Peace Corps and attended
a class taught by John Hersey where she
read Hiroshima, his magnum opus. She
began to write for the Yale Daily News.
Graduating with a degree in anthropology,
she soon was in journalism, first working
with UPI and after transfer to their Paris
Bureau, moved to London to work for the
Sunday Times in 1985. She was appointed
a correspondent to their Middle East, then
Foreign Affairs desks.
Marie Colvin: “Our mission is to
speak the truth to power. We send
home that first rough draft of history.”
She gained media attention with her
interviews of Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi
and Yasser Arafat to whom she once re-portedly
said during the Oslo peace ac-cords
of 1993, “Just put the pencil down
and sign it already!”
Marie Colvin: “These are
not just numbers. I want to
tell the stories. These are
people who have no voice.”
Ms. Colvin’s by-lines from
Kosovo, Chechnya, and Zimba-bwe
made her a legend among
the press corps earning her the Interna-tional
Women's Media Foundation award
for Courage in Journalism.
She was credited with saving the lives
of 1,500 women and children by refusing
to leave her post in East Timor.
Ms. Colvin lost an eye in 2001 during
a grenade attack after identifying herself
as a journalist in Sri Lanka.
Marie Colvin: “What is bravery,
and what is bravado? Journalists
covering combat shoulder great
responsibilities and face difficult
choices. Sometimes they pay the
ultimate price.”
Marie Colvin was killed in 2012 during
the Syrian Civil War.
In an interview with the BBC, her mother
described her daughter: “Everywhere she
tried to help people. She believed she was
a witness to the violence and that she could
make a difference by showing the full reality
of people in trouble, not just a snapshot.”
Lyse Doucet of the BBC summed up
the feelings of Ms. Colvin’s colleagues,
"the world will miss her because she was
the eyes and ears of so many."
Marie Colvin: “Be passionate in what
you believe. Do it as thoroughly and
honestly and fearlessly as you can.”
• 2000 – Journalist of the Year, Foreign
Press Association
• 2000 – Courage in Journalism, Inter-national
Women's Media Foundation
• 2001 – Foreign Reporter of the Year,
British Press Awards
• 2009 – Foreign Reporter of the
Year, British Press Awards
• 2012 – Anna Politkovskaya Award,
Reach All Women in War (RAW in WAR)
• 2012 – Foreign Reporter of the
Year, British Press Awards
(Wikipedia)
Legends G.A.H.S. Has Moved!
New Home! New Look!
Astoria History @ Court Square
Our new office is:
Greater Astoria Historical Society
LIC Arts Building # Suite 219
44-02 23rd Street
Long Island City, NY 11101
718-278-0700 / info@astorialic.org
Serving the communities of
Old Long Island City:
Blissville
Sunnyside
Sunnyside Gardens
Hunters Point
Dutch Kills
Ravenswood
Astoria Broadway
Norwood
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Steinway
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Photo via mariecolvin.org
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