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Kathleen Kearney Keeshen Papers relating to Marguerite Higgins

A description of her papers at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: Michele Combs
Date: 16 Jul 2024

Biographical History

Marguerite Higgins (1920-1966), pioneering newspaperwoman, columnist, and author, was best known for reporting from the front lines during the Korean War. Honored as the first woman to receive a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of international affairs (1951), she had a long career with the New York Herald Tribune (1942-1963), and later, as a syndicated columnist for Newsday (1963-1965). She also wrote books on reporting, Korea, Russia and Vietnam, and contributed articles to several other newspapers and magazines including America, the Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), Mademoiselle, and McCall'. She made television appearances on shows such as "Meet the Press" and "Today." A frequently requested lecturer, she traveled as extensively inside the U.S. as abroad. She visited Vietnam several times, and while touring there in 1965 contracted leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease, which forced her to return to the U.S. where she died in Washington D.C. on January 3, 1966 at age 45. She is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Kathleen Kearney Keeshen (1937- ) worked for IBM for many years and earned multiple degrees, including a master's and PhD from the University of Maryland. For her thesis and dissertation on journalist Marguerite Higgins, Keeshen gathered extensive research material and interviewed Higgins’s fellow reporters, military officials, husbands, and other who knew her well. Keeshen later developed a friendship with author Jennet Conant, who referred to Keeshen as "a fellow Higgins obsessive." Keeshen allowed her Higgins material to be used extensively by Conant in the preparation of Conant's book Fierce Ambition: The Life and Legend of War Correspondent Maggie Higgins (W.W. Norton, 2023).

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Kathleen Kearney Keeshen Papers relating to Marguerite Higgins consists of subject files, interviews, correspondence, research notes, and other material accumulated by Keeshen in the 1970s and 1980s, while writing her master's thesis and PhD dissertation (University of Maryland) on journalist Marguerite Higgins.

Arrangement of the Collection

Unprocessed.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The collection is currently unprocessed and not available for research. Please contact SCRC for more information.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Related Material

See also the Marguerite Higgins Papers.

Subject Headings

Persons

Hall, William E. (William Evans), 1907-1984.
Higgins, Marguerite.
Keeshen, Kathleen Kearney, 1937-
Millar, George, 1910-2005.
Moore, Stanley Williams, 1914-

Subjects

Journalists -- United States.
Korean War, 1950-1953 -- Journalists.
Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Journalists.
War correspondents -- United States.
Women authors, American.
Women journalists -- United States.

Genres and Forms

Clippings (information artifacts)
Correspondence.
Interviews.
Research notes.
Yearbooks.

Occupations

Biographers.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Kathleen Kearney Keeshen Papers relating to Marguerite Higgins,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of Kathleen Kearney Keeshen, 2024.

Table of Contents

Inventory

An inventory has not yet been created for this collection. Please contact the Repository listed above for more information.