Quotes about Pyle

Quotes from NSNC Columnists

It was 50 years ago today that Ernie Pyle should have ducked. While riding in a jeep with some soldiers on some flyspeck of a Pacific island, he was picked off by a machine gun….

Finally, I found it, sandwiched between two headstones on which were simply etched “Unknown.” There was no pile of flowers on Ernie’s grave. Just two vases with some wilted orchids and a rain-sodden lei.

I don’t want to get mushy, but finding little Ernie here, just about a driver and a nine-iron away from my dad’s grave, was, well, pretty intense…

I brushed some of the dried grass from Ernie’s headstone and placed a fresh lei of orchids and a cold can of Budweiser.

I was going to wish him Happy Columnists Day, but that sounded kind of weird. So I just said, “Cheers.”

— CHARLEY MEMMINGER/HONOLULU STAR-BULLETIN

* * * * *
Pyle’s life will be celebrated tomorrow by a handful of scribes who don’t even qualify to carry his typewriter.

Maybe some guys from the 77th Infantry will lift a glass, too.

You’re welcome to join in.

I suggest this toast: “To Ernie Pyle. Simply the best.”

— BILL CAMPBELL/NORTHWEST FLORIDA DAILY NEWS

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