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all-volunteer-led foundation
with a small budget," Key
adds. "We hope this national
recognition will give Hoosiers
and others another reason to
come and visit what we believe
is a gem of a museum. And
with the generosity of the Helt
Township Trustee and Advisory
Board, the museum is offering
free admission this year to the
birthplace and adjoining exhib-
its in the two Quonset huts on
the site."
The last time I was near
Dana, I didn't turn north off
U.S. 36 to see Pyle's birthplace;
instead I headed south and
saw little but cultivated black
soil and young green corn. It
reminded me of something Pyle
wrote a few years before he left
for the war.
"To me the summer wind in
the Midwest is one of the most
melancholy things in all life. It
comes from so far and blows so
gently and yet so relentlessly;
it rustles the leaves and the
branches of the maple trees in
a sort of symphony of sadness,
and it doesn't pass on and leave
them still. It just keeps coming,
like the infinite flow of Old
Man River."
• To learn more about
Pyle's life, columnist Mike
Lunsford suggests Ray
Boomhower's short biography,
"The Soldier's Friend: The
Life of Ernie Pyle" and Owen
Johnson's "At Home with Ernie
Pyle." The best collection of
Pyle's travel writing can be
found in "Home Country," by
Ernie Pyle (1947).
• A fine collection of Pyle's
wartime columns can be found
at on the Indiana University
Media School's site at https://
bit.ly/3DnqHFZ
• For more on the Ernie
Pyle World War II Museum and
Pyle's birthplace, visit https://
erniepyle.org.
Pyle
Continued from Page 3
Page 10
October 2021
appeared in local newspapers
from the 1930s forward. As a
young dancer in 1936, she was
billed as performing in a live
amateur night show at one of
Muncie's then-landmark down-
town theaters, the Wysor. (Also
on the bill: Walter Zumpke,
described as a "crooner from
Daleville," and Vesta Bennett,
described as a "hill-billy.")
A 1941 newspaper article
noted that Chin had won a
badge in photography from the
local Girl Scouts organization,
a sign of her lifelong hobby
and vocation. The Indiana
Journalism Hall of Fame article
stated that Chin's father had
loaned his camera to her, for
a Girl Scout project, when she
was 8.
"He wouldn't give me
money for candy," Chin
recalled for the profile article.
"But if I wanted new camera
equipment, he always got it for
me."
Although she was well-
known locally, Chin made her
mark in photography and photo-
journalism in wider circles.
In November 1963, just a
few days after the assassination
of President John F. Kennedy
and the installation of Lyndon
Baines Johnson as president, an
article in The Muncie Evening
Press included a picture of new
First Lady Lady Bird Johnson
with Chin, who, the article
noted, had met her a year ear-
lier during a Theta Sigma Phi
convention in Dallas. Chin was
among those who attended a
brunch at the Johnson ranch.
Chin later sent the Johnsons
a photo she had made of their
home, which prompted a thank
you note, in which Lady Bird
said Chin's photo was "one
of the very best pictures ever
taken of the Ranch house."
Chin majored in art
and minored in English at
MacMurray College for Women
in Jackson, Illinois, the profile
said, adding that her photogra-
phy skills led her to become the
first female photographer for
Muncie newspapers in 1946.
She was the first female pho-
tographer to cover the Indiana
high school basketball cham-
pionship at Hinkle Fieldhouse
in Indianapolis, carrying 55
pounds of camera equipment.
The profile noted that she
worked for the newspapers until
1954, when she opened her
Muncie photo studio, but she
eventually wrote the photog-
raphy column for The Muncie
Star.
In the 1960s, Chin was cited
by the U.S. State Department
for a feature in a magazine
circulated in China depicting
the lifestyle of a successful
Chinese-American business
owner, according to the profile.
Chin
Continued from Page 5
