Helen Kirkpatrick

Helen Kirkpatrick (October 18, 1909 – December 29, 1997) In August 1944 she rode with the tanks of General Leclerc's 2nd Armored Division as the division liberated Paris. Afterwards, she became the Daily News''' Paris Bureau Chief and a short time later, went on to report from Germany.

Her final wartime assignment was to visit Berchtesgaden — Hitler's mountain retreat in Bavaria where it is reported that she stole a frying pan from the kitchen.

Kirkpatrick in 1943 with other female war correspondents who covered the U.S. Army in the European Theater during World War II; from left to right: Mary Welsh, Dixie Tighe, Kathleen Harriman, Helen Kirkpatrick, Lee Miller, and Tania Long

Post-war career By 1946 Kirkpatrick had left the Chicago Daily News and joined the New York Post'' for which paper she covered the Nuremberg Trials and secured one of the first interviews with Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India.

Leaving journalism to work as an information officer for the Marshall Plan before returning to Washington, D.C. to work for an Advisor to Secretaty of State Dean Acheson in the European Bureau of the State Department between 1949 and 1953, Kirkpatrick then finally became secretary to the President of Smith College, her alma mater.

After retirement she was engaged in a number of civic activities, many of which were on behalf of the Democratic Party.

Personal life and death Kirkpatrick divorced her first husband, Victor Polacheck, in 1936 and in 1954 married Robbins Milbank, a trustee of Smith College. She remained married to Milbank until his death in 1985. Between 1983 and 1993, Kirkpatrick began gifting her papers to the Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Special Collections.

After retirement to Williamsburg, Virginia, Kirkpatrick died on December 29, 1997.

Honors For her wartime services, Kirkpatrick was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the French Legion of Honour and the Médaille de la Reconnaissance française and in later life the Rockefeller Public Service Award for her work for the US Government.