Martha Gellhorn

<p>Martha Ellis Gellhorn was born on November 8, 1908, in St. Louis, Missouri. She reported on the Great Depression for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration before heading to Spain in 1937 to report on the Spanish Civil War for <em>Collier's Weekly</em>.</p><p>During World War II, when female journalists were denied frontline credentials, Gellhorn locked herself inside a hospital ship's bathroom, crossing the English Channel to land on Omaha Beach on D-Day (June 6, 1944) as a stretcher bearer—the only woman to do so. She reported on the liberation of Dachau concentration camp, the Vietnam War, and Central American conflicts, refusing to be remembered merely as Ernest Hemingway's third wife. The prestigious Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism honors her fearless commitment to human truth.</p>