Kate Webb's 2nd (actual) death announcement

MAY 14, 2007 TAGS: WRITERS, CIVIL RIGHTS ADD A COMMENT

Kate Webb, a fiery Australian journalist who covered the Vietnam War for the United Press International News Agency, died Sunday in Sydney at the age of 64. In 1971, Webb was taken hostage by North Vietnamese forces while serving as the Phnom Penh bureau chief for the U.P.I. She was presumed dead. The New York Times ran her obituary and her family held a memorial service. However, after 23 days in captivity, all were surprised as she emerged unscathed and unshook.

During Webb's time in captivity, she was able to retain a measure of journalistic inquisitiveness. In an interview with the radio program, On the Media, Webb characterized her time in captivity as, "fascinating if you live to tell it. I was able to see-- how the other side operated -- in a limited way of course. When you're tied up and marching all night, you, you don't see much."

Her personality spanned a gulf of opposites: from a gentle countenance evidenced by her whisper-quiet voice to a fearless, seemingly indestructible presence as a war correspondent. Webb was regarded as attractive, with a slender frame and large, searching eyes. She never married, was a hard drinker and furiously smoked cigarettes. The Los Angeles Times' obit described her time as a cub reporter in Vietnam as indicative of her tenacity:

"She quickly proved her mettle, becoming the first wire service reporter at the U.S. Embassy on the morning the Tet offensive was launched in January 1968. That spring she survived an American rocket attack on a Saigon military building that killed everyone around her, including the South Vietnamese police chief. She brushed herself off, ran back into the rubble to aid the wounded, then wrote a stirring account of the incident."

After graduating from college and working on a tabloid in Sydney for a short while, Webb packed her typewriter and arrived in Saigon in 1967 at the age 24. She freelanced for the UPI and eventually worked her way to bureau chief of Phnom Penh. She later continued to report on numerous countries within Southeast Asia.

Timeline from Ohio University

Transcript from interview, On the Media, Sep. 20, 2002

Obit from The Independent (UK)

Obit from The Los Angeles Times