Ernie Pyle
1900-1945
Birthplace: Dana, Indiana
Typewriter: Corona No.3 portable*

For many journalists, Ernest Taylor Pyle, an Indiana native better known as "Ernie," continues to be an icon of excellence decades after his death in the battlefield in World War II. Pyle held a variety of reporting and editorial jobs, then in the late 1930s devoted himself to reporting, especially as a correspondent in Latin America. During World War 2 he accompanied Allied forces in the invasions of North Africa, Italy, and Normandy, and reported from the front lines with personal stories of soldiers and their lives. His reports, collected in Here Is Your War (1943) and Brave Men (1944), won great popularity and earned him a Pulitzer Prize. He was killed by Japanese gunfire during the US landing on Okinawa, and became a national hero.

This is the old Corona carried by Ernie Pyle through the ravages of war, picture courtesy of The Albuquerque Museum, and a gift from Don Bell.