Terry Anderson, a US journalist who was held captive by Islamist terrorists in Lebanon for over seven years and came to represent the fate of Western hostages throughout the country’s 1975–1990 civil war, died on Sunday at the age of 76, his daughter said in a statement.
The former chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, who was the longest kept hostage among the scores of Westerners kidnapped in Lebanon, died at his home in Greenwood Lake, New York, according to his daughter Sulome Anderson, who was born three months after his capture. No cause of death was specified.
During what was known as ‘The Hostage Crisis’, the former Marine was kept in barely-lit cells by mostly Shi’ite Muslim groups, chained by his hands and feet and blindfolded for most of the time. He later recalled that he “almost went insane” and that only his Roman Catholic faith kept him from taking his own life before he was freed in December 1991.
“Though my father’s life was marked by extreme suffering during his time as a hostage in captivity, he found a quiet, comfortable peace in recent years. I know he would choose to be remembered not by his very worst experience, but through his humanitarian work with the Vietnam Children’s Fund, the Committee to Protect Journalists, homeless veterans, and many other incredible causes,” Sulome Anderson said.
The family will take some time to plan a memorial, she said.
Who was Terry Anderson?
Terry Anderson’s tragedy began in Beirut on March 16, 1985, following a session of tennis. When a green Mercedes sedan with curtains over the rear window arrived, three shooters stepped out and dragged Terry Anderson, who was still wearing shorts, into the vehicle.
The pro-Iran Islamic Jihad organization claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, describing it as part of “continuing operations against Americans.” The abductors demanded the release of Shi’ite Muslims imprisoned in Kuwait for bombing the US and French embassies.
It was the beginning of Terry Anderson’s nightmare, which would continue for six years and nine months, during which he was imprisoned in cells beneath the rubble-strewn streets of Beirut and elsewhere, frequently malnourished and sleeping on a small, soiled mattress on concrete floors.
During captivity, his father and brother died of cancer, and he did not see his daughter Sulome until she was six years old.
“What kept me going?” he asked aloud shortly after release. “My companions. I was lucky to have people with me most of the time. My faith, stubbornness. You do what you have to. You wake up every day and summon up the energy from somewhere. You think you haven’t got it and you get through the day and do it. Day after day after day.”
Other hostages described Terry Anderson as tough and energetic while in captivity, learning French and Arabic and exercising regularly.
They also described him pounding his head against a wall until he bled in frustration over beatings, solitude, false hopes, and a sense of being abandoned by the outside world.
“There is a limit to how long we can last, and some of us are approaching the limit very badly,” Terry Anderson said in a videotape released by his captors in December 1987.
Marcel Fontaine, a French diplomat who was released in May 1988 after three years in captivity, said how cellmate Terry Anderson believed freedom was near because he was allowed to see the sun and eat a hamburger.
His birthday, October 27, became an unofficial US hostage memorial day
Over the years, scores of journalist groups, nations, and people have appealed for Terry Anderson’s release, and his birthday, October 27, became an unofficial US hostage memorial day.
Terry Anderson admitted to contemplating suicide multiple times but ultimately decided against it. He depended greatly on his faith, which he claimed he had rekindled six months before being kidnapped.
“I must have read the Bible 50 times from start to finish,” he went on to say. “It was an enormous help to me.”
His sister, Peggy Say, who died in 2015, was his staunchest supporter during captivity.
She worked valiantly to secure her brother’s freedom. She traveled to Arab and European countries and lobbied the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and every US official and politician possible.
Terry Anderson was born on October 27, 1947, in Lorain, Ohio, and grew up in Batavia, NY. He graduated from Iowa State University and served six years in the Marine Corps, largely as a journalist.
He worked for the Associated Press in Detroit, Louisville, New York, Tokyo, Johannesburg, and finally Beirut, where he initially traveled to cover the Israeli invasion in 1982.
In that war-torn city, he fell in love with Lebanese woman Madeleine Bassil, who was his fiancée and pregnant with their daughter Sulome when he was kidnapped.
He is survived by his daughters Sulome and Gabrielle, his sister Judy and brother Jack, and Bassil, whom Sulome Terry Anderson described as “his ex-wife and best friend.”
After his release, Anderson taught journalism at Columbia University in New York, Ohio University, the University of Kentucky, and the University of Florida before retiring in 2015.