Pulitzer Photog, Subject Return to Kent State

Mary Ann Vecchio and photographer John Filo hug after their talk during the annual May 4 commemoration on the Kent State University campus on Monday in Kent. [Associated Press]

Filo and Vecchio return to KSU

Inextricably linked by the annals of history for the past 39 years, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer John Filo and his subject, Mary Vecchio, were reunited Tuesday at Kent State University.

I thought I had ruined her life. It took me 25 years before I could talk to her. --John Filo

The last time he saw her on the campus was through the lens of his camera as he took his historic picture on May 4, 1970, after the shootings on campus that left four dead and nine wounded.

Filo, then a senior photojournalism major, is now photography director for CBS in New York. Vecchio, then a 14-year-old runaway from Florida, is a respiratory therapist in Florida.

The two were the featured speakers at Monday afternoon's 39th commemoration of the May 4 shootings. The two-hour program on the Kent State Commons, the site of the student demonstrations, was organized by the May 4th Task Force. It was the culmination of events that began Sunday night with a march and candlelight vigil in the parking lot next to Taylor Hall, where the students were shot by National Guardsmen who fired 87 shots in 13 seconds. [Click for MORE]

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