Talented Tuesday ~ Coy Wilton Wynn

Photograph by Eileen Blass, USA TODAY

Coy Wilton Wynn was born in Prescott, Arkansas on August 9, 1920 to the marriage of Ota Gilbert Wynn, Sr. and Kate Ward.  He was a brother to Hazel, Ota Gilbert, Jr. and Winnie Wynn.

The family moved to Louisiana in the mid-1920s and can be found on the 1930 census living in Wisner, Franklin Parish, Louisiana.

By 1940 the Wynn family had moved again and made their home in Sicily Island, Catahoula Parish, Louisiana.






After graduating from Louisiana State University, Wilton Wynn worked for several southern newspapers before moving to Egypt in 1945 to teach English at the American University in Cairo.  He was the head of the department of journalism from 1945-1947. 

Wynn was the director of the department of journalism at Lehigh University in Cairo, Egypt from 1947-1950 before joining the Associated Press where he was the AP bureau chief from 1955-1961.

In 1962 he joined Time Magazine where he covered the 1967 Middle East War and traveled with Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat on his historic trip to Jerusalem in 1977.

As the Time Magazine bureau chief in Rome, Wynn covered the early years of Pope John Paul II's papacy in the 1980s.

Philadelphia online news wrote the following upon Wynn's death in 2011:

As Rome bureau chief for Time, he frequently accompanied the well-traveled pope abroad. The pope took notice of Mr. Wynn's coverage, and when the journalist retired in 1985 for health reasons, he offered a papal blessing. Covering the papacy brought the Arkansas-born Baptist closer to Catholicism, and after he retired, Mr. Wynn converted.

In a June 6, 2011 article from The American, Christopher P. Winner writes:

Wynn and Wojytla, the southern gentleman and the Polish proselytizer, both polite but stubborn men, were ideally matched. When the pope ventured into the passenger cabin during trips abroad — cabins packed with chain-smoking journalists — he'd often pause to speak to the Time correspondent.

From a 2005 interview with Noelle Knox, USA TODAY:

While Wynn was following the pope, John Paul was reading his work. After Wynn co-wrote a Time cover story on the pope's visit to England's Canterbury Cathedral in 1982, the pope stopped by Wynn's seat on the papal plane. "He reached out and took both of my hands and said, 'You are a good journalist,' " Wynn says. "I felt like I'd won the Pulitzer Prize."

From Christopher Harper on April 29, 2011:

Wilton spoke with a gentle drawl that endeared him to poets and presidents alike. He also was tall, really tall with a distinctive beard that made him look like the debonair man he was. He always wore a coat and tie even during the horrific summer days in Beirut and Cairo.

Coy Wilton Wynn died at his home in Rome on April 14, 2011.

He was the author of "A Typewriter and a Dream", "Nassar of Egypt:  The Search for Dignity", and "The Keeper of the Keys".