The woman in the Kent State photo

June 8, 2000

John Filo was a student photographer taking pictures of antiwar demonstrators at Ohio's Kent State University on May 4, 1970. Suddenly, National Guardsmen fired on the crowd, killing four protesters and wounding nine. A young woman standing by the body of slain student Jeffrey Miller dropped to her knees and screamed just as Mr. Filo clicked his shutter.

The picture became a national symbol of the antiwar movement and won a Pulitzer Prize. Its subject was later identified as Mary Ann Vecchio, a 14-year-old runaway who just happened to be at Kent State visiting friends.

After the picture thrust her into the public eye, Ms. Vecchio was investigated by the FBI and taken back to her home in Miami. She later married and moved to Las Vegas, where she worked in the casinos and helped organize nonunion labor. Wary of the press, Vecchio gave few interviews until the 25th anniversary of the shootings in 1995, when she agreed to several TV appearances and was reunited with Filo at an event at Emerson College in Boston.

Now divorced, Vecchio works in the field of self-actualization and massage therapy in Florida. Once again she is declining to speak with the press. She is currently collaborating with Emerson professor Greg Payne on a revised edition of his book, "Mayday, Kent State."

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society