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NOVEMBER 2004

HUMAN OBITS

Ann Cottrell Free, 88, died on October 30, 2004, of pneumonia, in Washington, D.C. Born in Richmond, Virginia, Free debuted in journalism with the Richmond Times Dispatch in 1936. On April 9, 1939, Free interviewed African American contralto Marian Anderson just after she delivered her historic free concert for 75,000 people from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The Daughters of the American Revolution had banned Anderson from performing in Constitution Hall. Relocating to Washington D.C. in 1940, Free became the first full-time female national capitol correspondent for Newsweek, the Chicago Sun and the New York Herald Tribune. Post-World War II, Free traveled in China as a special correspondent for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilit-ation Administration; witnessed the ceremony that transferred India from British rule to the home government formed by Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru; narrowly escaped the Moslem/Hindu riots that followed; joined the Marshall Plan in 1948 as a special correspondent, reporting on U.S. efforts to rebuild western Europe; interviewed Eleanor Roosevelt during the former First Lady’s successful effort to win the 1948 adoption of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights; and covered the last days of French rule in Vietnam for the Herald Tribune and other newspapers. As a roving foreign correspondent, her stories also included datelines from the Sinai desert, Palestine, Vienna, Paris, London, and Berlin. In February 1950 she married James S. Free (1908-1996), the longtime Washington D.C. correspondent for the Birmingham News. James and Ann Cottrell Free during the 1960s co-wrote a syndicated political column called Washington Whirligig. Ann Free also wrote for the Washington Star, Washington Post, Defend-ers of Wildlife, This Week, the North American Newspaper Alliance syndicate, and the Women’s News Service. Introduced to Animal Welfare Institute founder Christine Stevens (1918-2002) by then-U.S. Senator Hubert Humphrey in the mid-1950s,

Jeff Hubbard, 38, animal control officer for Wise, Virginia, since 2000, and for Wise County for one week, died unexpectedly on October 9.

Anthony Helzer, 20, an employer of the Houston SPCA who had been missing since mid-day on September 30, was found dead in woods near the SPCA on October 5.

Margaret B. Mitchell, 102, who founded the Bristol Humane Society of Bristol, Virginia, died in Bristol on December 13, 2003. She was remembered on October 4, 2004, when Spay Virginia director Teresa Dockery dedicated a sterilization clinic to be built with $650,000 from her estate plus additional funding. Dockery was for eight years president of the Bristol Humane Society.

Paul F. Iams, 89, died on October 26 in Chappaqua, New York, from complications of a broken hip. He lived near one of his two daughters, in Sun City West, Arizona, and was visiting the other in Chappaqua. Born in Dayton, Ohio, Iams sold dog food for several years, then sold soap for Procter & Gamble. After World War II duty in the U.S. Navy, Iams in 1946 rented a feed mill in Tipp City, Ohio, and began making dog food for Kentucky Chemical Inc. At first he used their recipe. In 1950 Iams moved the operation to Dayton and began using his own recipe. He hired future business partner Clay Mathile in 1970 and sold Iams to him in 1982. Mathile sold the firm to Procter & Gamble in 1999.

Lorna Ham Kemp, 79, died on October 21, 2004, in Victoria, British Columbia. A former school teacher and nurse, a vegetarian for most of her life, and a survivor of cancers that were expected to kill her in 1980 and 1982, Kemp lived most of her life in Brigham, Quebec. The Kemp farm and the Naud farm on the far side of the Yamaska River were late holdouts against the introduction of factory techniques to the Quebec dairy industry. While the Naud family kept their land by founding a penned boar hunt, Lorna Kemp and her daughter P.J. Kemp informally made the Kemp farm the local animal rescue headquarters. They took in dozens of feral cats, some dogs, a flock of ducks, and once an abused monkey. They began sterilizing barn cats in 1977, influencing neighbors to do likewise. In 1978 P.J. Kemp wrote an essay entitled “The Soul of Beasts” for The Town-ships Sun, a now defunct regional newspaper. “The Soul of Beasts” was often reprinted and cited during the next few years and may have been the first animal rights manifesto to reach a broad Quebec audience. ANIMAL PEOPLE editor Merritt Clifton gained his first experience with farm animal welfare, feral cat sterilization, and wildlife management while living at the Kemp farm, 1977-1989. With Lorna Kemp’s introductions, encouragement, and translation help, Clifton won the cooperation of many surrounding farmers in keeping much of Brigham Township virtually trap-free throughout the trapping boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The farm was lost through a 1989 split involving other family members. Lorna and P.J. Kemp moved to Victoria, B.C., where they continued to rescue cats. P.J. Kemp nursed Lorna Kemp through her terminal illness, the first symptom of which may have been a blackout leading to a serious fall from a ladder while trying to help a cat.