In Memoriam: Ann Cottrell Free

Why?
Why am I so fierce?
Because I am so gentle.
Why am I so angry?
Because I so love peace.
Why am I freeing these animals?
Because I want so much to sleep...
- Ann Cottrell Free
1916-2004

Ann Cottrell Free, an early champion of animal rights and a pioneering woman journalist, passed away last week of pneumonia, at the age of 88.

Free began her newspaper career on the Richmond Times Dispatch in 1936. In 1940, she became the first full-time female Washington correspondent, working for Newsweek, The Chicago Sun, and the New York Herald Tribune during World War II. After the war, she traveled the world, serving as a foreign correspondent in China, Vietnam, India, Europe and the Middle East.

Inspired by Silent Spring author Rachel Carson and humanitarian Albert Schweitzer, Free spent decades writing on animal issues and successfully campaigned on behalf of several animal-related causes.

Cottrell began writing about animal protection in the late 1950's, and her reporting is credited with helping to generate the congressional and public support that resulted in the passage of the landmark Humane Slaughter and Animal Welfare Acts.

Free wrote for publications including Defenders of Wildlife and The Animal Welfare Institute Quarterly, and won numerous honors, including the Albert Schweitzer Medal, the Rachel Carson Legacy Award, and numerous awards from national and local humane and environmental organizations.

After Carson's death, Free successfully campaigned for the establishment of the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Maine, and in 1986, she co-founded Vieques Humane Society and Animal Rescue on the Caribbean island of Vieques, Puerto Rico.

Free authored three books concerning animals: Forever the Wild Mare; Animals, Nature and Albert Schweitzer; and No Room, Save in the Heart. Free also composed an oral history "Telling Their Story is All I Can Do," which is now part of Columbia University's animal advocacy oral history collection.

For a complete obituary, see the Boston Globe.