Homer William Bigart was an American reporter who worked for the New York Herald Tribune from 1929 to 1955 and for The New York Times from 1955 to his retirement in 1972.
17 Facts About Homer Bigart
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Homer Bigart transferred to the New York University School of Journalism in 1929.
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Homer Bigart got a part-time job as a night copy boy at the Herald Tribune, then dropped out of school to work full-time at the newspaper.
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Homer Bigart had a stutter and a painfully slow typing speed which did not stop him from being promoted to general assignment reporter after four years.
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In 1942, with World War II raging, Bigart was asked to become a war correspondent.
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Homer Bigart stated that, although he never liked the war, when he was assigned to London:.
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Homer Bigart covered the fighting in North Africa, Italy, and southern France.
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Homer Bigart left the Herald Tribune in 1955, a decade before its demise, for The New York Times.
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Homer Bigart covered the trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in 1961.
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In 1962, Homer Bigart was sent to South Vietnam, where he stayed for six months.
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Homer Bigart soon realized that the war was a mistake, stating "I never thought we'd be stupid enough to send ground troops over there in the first place, after the experience in Korea".
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The New York Times dispatched Homer Bigart to cover some of the most significant events of the struggle of Southern blacks for civil rights.
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Homer Bigart followed the 101st Airborne Division into Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957, in response to Governor Orval Faubus's refusal to comply with federal court orders to desegregate the city's public schools.
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Homer Bigart covered the demonstrations in St Augustine, Florida, that led directly to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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Alice Weel Homer Bigart was the first woman to write full-time for a US network news program, when she joined CBS's Douglas Edwards and the News in 1948 and later became a producer of 60 Minutes.
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Homer Bigart retired in 1973 and died in 1991 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, of cancer.
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Homer Bigart was survived by his third wife, Else Holmelund Minarik, a writer of children's books.