Letters to the Editor: Rosalind Wyman’s was a life well lived
The following is an excerpt from “A Voice for Change” written by Rosalind Wyman, who died Aug. 31 at age 69.
After three decades of writing letters to this newspaper, I am at last allowed to share a response to my friend’s obituary on page A10. In the space below I will also add a few comments on the obituaries of others who have died over the years.
“I am deeply touched by the outpouring of sorrow which followed the loss of my dear friend Rosalind. She was, was, and always will be a special part of my life and the life of this newspaper. I shall always treasure the words and wisdom she shared with me – both from memory and with her own incomparable gift of eloquence.
“During her career, Rosalind was a true pioneer. She was the first woman to become a staff writer at the New York Times when it was a newly created division and the first woman on staff of the London Times. She was one of four Times journalists who accompanied the president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, to Berlin in 1961 on the last day of the Soviet dictator Khrushchev’s reign. She was the first reporter to interview the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat when he came to New York to accept the Nobel Prize.
“She was also one of the first female war correspondents to cover the Vietnam war, going from Paris as a correspondent to South Vietnam to Rome, Rome, Rome as a war correspondent, to the Middle East, and finally to Beirut where she covered the U.S. bombing of the Beirut barracks, and Lebanon’s first democratic election.
“There were many more such events during Rosalind’s time at the Times. She was a woman after our own hearts and we shall miss her.”
“I was a reporter and a foreign correspondent. Rosalind was a foreign writer. She took the responsibility of writing for a woman in a man’s world and had a way of making it a pleasure.
“What a blessing to be able to read her in print and to see her in person, to be able to see her on television. She was very warm and gracious and we