Kathy Willens, pathbreaking Associated Press photographer who captured sports and more, dies at 74
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — A pathbreaking photojournalist who helped cement women’s place behind the lens during her nearly 45-years career at The Associated Press has died. Kathy Willens was 74. Nephew Ben Willens says his aunt died Tuesday at her Brooklyn home of ovarian cancer. It was diagnosed shortly after her 2021 retirement. Willens was among The AP’s first female staff photographers, joining the news cooperative in 1976. She went on to shoot more than 90,000 images — of presidents and Pope John Paul II, protests and war, sports triumphs and human tragedy. Specializing in sports, Willens became a photographer of such stature that the New York Yankees paid tribute to her when she retired.
