Geyer in 2002

Georgie Anne Geyer (April 2, 1935 – May 15, 2019)[1] was an American journalist who covered the world as a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Daily News and then became a syndicated columnist for the Universal Press Syndicate. Her columns focused on foreign affairs issues and appeared in approximately 120 newspapers in North and South America. She was the author of ten books, including a biography of Fidel Castro and a memoir of her life as a foreign correspondent, Buying the Night Flight.

Early life and education

Geyer was born in Chicago, and graduated from Calumet High School. She graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 1956, where she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority. She attended the University of Vienna on a Fulbright Scholarship. She spoke Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Russian.

Professional career

Her first job was with the Chicago Southtown Economist. From 1959 to 1974, Geyer was a reporter for the now-defunct Chicago Daily News, where she worked from society reporting to the news desk and eventually foreign correspondent. After leaving the paper, she began her syndicated column.

In 1973, she was the first Western reporter to interview Saddam Hussein, then Vice President of Iraq. She also interviewed Yasser Arafat, Anwar Sadat, King Hussein of Jordan, Muammar al-Gaddafi, and the Ayatollah Khomeini. She reported on rebels in the Dominican Republic, was held by authorities in Angola for her reporting during civil war, and was threatened with death by the Mano Blanca death squads in Guatemala.

Geyer had more than 21 honorary degrees, including three from Northwestern alone.

In an October 1996 letter published in the Chicago Tribune, now Judge Ramon Ocasio III criticized Geyer for anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic rhetoric in her Op-ed "The anti-Columbus Day march."[2]

Personal life and death

In 1992, the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire thinly based its lead female character, Georgie Anne Lahti, on Geyer's life and career. In January 1993, Chicago Tribune columnist Mike Royko excoriated the show's producers for doing so, and stated that Geyer was not pleased with that depiction. "Did the TV producers ask if they could use the real Georgie Anne that way?" Royko wrote. "Not only did they not ask, they loftily deny that their TV Georgie Anne is in any way based on the real life Georgie Anne. A mere coincidence, yuck, yuck. Not to butter you up, but most of my readers are logical. So let me pose this question: If you were a Chicago-born blond named Georgie Anne, had built an international reputation as a foreign correspondent and columnist, and had written an important book about Fidel Castro, and you turned on your TV and saw a lewd sitcom about a Chicago-born blond named Georgie Anne who built a national reputation as a foreign correspondent and had written an important book about Fidel Castro, wouldn't you say something like: 'Hey, what the hell's going on?'"[3]

Geyer developed cancer of the tongue more than a decade before her death. She died at her home in Washington, D.C. on May 15, 2019.[1]

Books

TitleYearISBNPublisherSubject matterInterviews, presentations, and reviewsComments
The New Latins: Fateful Change in South and Central America1970Doubleday
The New 100 Years War1972Doubleday
The Young Russians1975ISBN 9780882800219ETC Publications
Buying the Night Flight: the Autobiography of a Woman Foreign Correspondent1983ISBN 9780440007258Delacorte Press
Guerrilla Prince: The Untold Story of Fidel Castro1991ISBN 9780316308939Little, Brown and Co.Fidel CastroBooknotes interview with Geyer on Guerrilla Prince, March 10, 1991, C-SPAN
Interview with Geyer on Castro and Cuba, August 24, 1994, C-SPAN
Washington Journal interview with Geyer, "Castro and the Future of Cuba", August 20, 2006, C-SPAN
Waiting for Winter to End: An Extraordinary Journey Through Soviet Central Asia1994ISBN 9780028811109Brassey's Inc.
Americans No More: The Death of Citizenship1996ISBN 9780871136503Atlantic Monthly PressCriticism of multiculturalismPresentation by Geyer on Americans No More, December 4, 1996, C-SPAN
Tunisia: A Journey Through a Country That Works2004ISBN 9781900988438Stacey InternationalTunisia
Predicting the Unthinkable, Anticipating the Impossible: From the Fall of the Berlin Wall to America in the New Century2011ISBN 9781412814874Routledge
When Cats Reigned Like Kings: On the Trail of the Sacred Cats 2017ISBN 9781138540484RoutledgeCats, Cultural depictions of cats

References

  1. 1 2 Kogan, Rick (May 17, 2019). "Georgie Anne Geyer: 1935-2019: Trailblazing foreign correspondent, columnist who got start in Chicago". Chicago Tribune. p. 6.
  2. ↑ Ocasio, Ramon (October 26, 1996). "ANTI-IMMIGRANT". Letter to the Editor. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
  3. ↑ Royko, Mike (January 13, 1993). "TV sleaze touches a respected life". Chicago Tribune. p. 13. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
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