13 Facts About Catherine Leroy

Catherine Leroy was a French-born photojournalist and war photographer, whose stark images of battle illustrated the story of the Vietnam War in the pages of Life magazine and other publications.

Catherine Leroy attended a Catholic boarding school and, to impress her boyfriend, earned a parachutist's license at the age of 18.

Catherine Leroy was so small and thin that she had to be weighed down so as not to be blown away during the jump.

Catherine Leroy had her press credentials temporarily suspended after she swore at a Marine officer who she felt was condescending in denying her request to jump shortly after Operation Junction City.

Catherine Leroy managed to talk her way out and emerged as the first newsperson to take photographs of PAVN soldiers behind their own lines.

Catherine Leroy returned to Paris from South Vietnam in mid December 1968.

Catherine Leroy returned to Saigon in mid-April 1975 not as a reporter, but to witness the Fall of Saigon.

Estrade was posted to Hanoi and in 1980 Catherine Leroy spent two months travelling around the country photographing for the fifth anniversary of the end of the war.

Catherine Leroy originally sold her work to United Press International and the Associated Press, and later worked for Sipa Press and Gamma.

In 1972, Catherine Leroy co-authored the book God Cried, about the siege of West Beirut by the Israeli army during the 1982 Lebanon War.

Catherine Leroy lived in the Hotel Chelsea in the late 1980s.

Catherine Leroy died in Santa Monica, California, one week after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

Catherine Leroy won numerous awards for her work, including in 1967 the George Polk Awards, Picture of the Year, The Sigma Delta Chi, and The Art Director's Club of New York.