Vietnam War Photographer Dies at 60

Catherine Leroy, the French-born photojournalist whose stark images of battle helped tell the story of the Vietnam War in the pages of Life magazine and other publications, died Saturday. She was 60.

Catherine Leroy died in Santa Monica, California

(SANTA MONICA) - Catherine Leroy died of cancer early Saturday at St John's Health Center in Santa Monica, says attending physician, Dr Jerome Helman.

As a 21-year old in 1966, she bought a one-way ticket to Saigon to document American troops in Vietnam.

A year later, she joined the likes of Dickey Chapelle in becoming one of the the only accredited journalists to participate in a combat parachute jump, joining the 173rd Airborne in Operation Junction City.

She was captured by the North Vietnamese Army in 1968 during the Tet Offensive, but talked her way out and emerged with images of the North Vietnamese Army in action that were used for a Life magazine cover.

"She was tiny and totally fearless," said Jonathan Randal, a longtime Washington Post correspondent who met Leroy in late 1965 and worked with her for many years.

"Like many young war photographers she was probably braver than she was talented in the beginning. But she went on to become a very fine photographer."

A famous 1967 photo, "Corpsman In Anguish," portrays a young Marine, his face wrenched in torment, hunched over the dead body of his friend, while smoke from the battle rises into the air behind them.

Leroy worked for the Gamma and Sipa photo agencies and later sold her work to The Associated Press and United Press International. Her photos appeared in publications worldwide.

In 1972, Leroy shot and directed "Operation Last Patrol," a film about Ron Kovic and the anti-war Vietnam veterans.

After Vietnam, she covered conflicts in several countries including Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Libya.

Leroy co-authored the book "God Cried" with Tony Clifton, about the siege of West Beirut by the Israeli army in 1982.

One of the many honors received by Catherine Leroy include the George Polk award for Best Reporting Requiring Exceptional Courage and Enterprise Abroad. She was the first woman to receive the Robert Capa Award for her coverage of the civil war in Lebanon in 1976.

She is survived by her 91-year-old mother, who lives in France, Helman said. The French Embassy is making arrangements to return Leroy's body home to France for burial.