From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:
Ann Cottrell Free, 88, died on October 30, 2004, of
pneumonia, in Washington, D.C. Born in Richmond, Virginia, Free
debuted in journalism with the Richmond Times Dispatch in 1936. On
April 9, 1939, Free interviewed African American contralto Marian
Anderson just after she delivered her historic free concert for
75,000 people from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The Daughters
of the American Revolution had banned Anderson from performing in
Constitution Hall. Relocating to Washington D.C. in 1940, Free
became the first full-time female national capitol correspondent for
Newsweek, the Chicago Sun and the New York Herald Tribune.
Post-World War II, Free traveled in China as a special correspondent
for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration;
witnessed the ceremony that transferred India from British rule to
the home government formed by Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru;
narrowly escaped the Moslem/Hindu riots that followed; joined the
Marshall Plan in 1948 as a special correspondent, reporting on U.S.
efforts to rebuild western Europe; interviewed Eleanor Roosevelt
during the former First Lady’s successful effort to win the 1948
adoption of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights; and
covered the last days of French rule in Vietnam for the Herald
Tribune and other newspapers. As a roving foreign correspondent,
her stories also included datelines from the Sinai desert,
Palestine, Vienna, Paris, London, and Berlin. In February 1950
she married James S. Free (1908-1996), the longtime Washington D.C.
correspondent for the Birmingham News. James and Ann Cottrell Free
during the 1960s co-wrote a syndicated political column called
Washington Whirligig. Ann Free also wrote for the Washington Star,
Washington Post, Defenders of Wildlife, This Week, the North
American Newspaper Alliance syndicate, and the Women’s News Service.
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