Ernie Pyle - Early Life and World War I

Early Life and World War I

Pyle was born on a tenant farm near Dana, Indiana on August 3, 1900. He joined the United States Navy Reserve at age 17. Pyle served three months active duty before World War I ended and finished his reserve service with the rank of Seaman Third Class.

After the war, Pyle attended Indiana University, traveled to the Orient with his fraternity brothers of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and edited the student newspaper. However, he didn't graduate and instead, with only a semester left at Indiana, he accepted a job at a paper in LaPorte, Indiana. He worked there for three months before moving to Washington, D.C. A tabloid newspaper, The Washington Daily News, founded in 1921, had hired Pyle as a reporter. All of the editors were young, including Editor-in-Chief John M. Gleissner (one of Warren G. Harding's drinking buddies); Lee G. Miller (author of An Ernie Pyle Album – Indiana to Ie Shima); Charles M. Egan, Willis "June" Thornton; and Paul McCrea. Pyle was named managing editor of the Washington Daily News and served in the post for three years, all the while fretting that he was unable to do any writing.

While in Washington, he met Geraldine "Jerry" Siebolds, his "fearful and troubled wife", with whom he carried on a tempestuous relationship. They were married in 1925. Jerry suffered from intermittent bouts of mental illness and alcoholism. Pyle described her as "desperate within herself since the day she was born".

In 1926, Pyle tired of work at a desk in the news room, quit his job, and with his wife headed out on the road to see America in a Ford roadster. The Pyles traveled more than 9,000 miles before Ernie returned to his job with the Daily News. In 1928, he became the country's first aviation columnist, a role he played for four years. Famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart summed it up: Any aviator who didn't know Pyle was a nobody. Pyle became managing editor of the Daily News in 1932.

The opportunity to return to writing came in 1934 after he spent time on a leisurely trip to California to recuperate from a severe bout of flu. Upon his return, it was suggested that he write some columns about his trip to fill in for the vacationing syndicated columnist Heywood Broun. The series of eleven columns was a hit. G.B. ("Deac") Parker, editor in chief of the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain, said he had found in Pyle's vacation articles "a Mark Twain quality that knocked my eye out". In 1935, Pyle was relieved of his duties as managing editor and began writing a national column for the Scripps-Howard Alliance group. He wandered around the country and the Americas in his car, writing columns about the unusual places and people he met in his ramblings. Select columns were later compiled and published in Home Country. Nevertheless, Pyle suffered from fits of deep depression, never satisfied with the quality of his writing. The daily column continued until 1942, after America's entry into the war.