Ernie Pyle Re-Enactor Visits Keene Public Library

The Keene Public Library will present the one-person play, “Hi, I’m Ernie Pyle” by Gary Morrison on Friday, May 21 at 7 pm in Heberton Hall. The play follows Ernie Pyle's life from his coverage of the blitz in London to his coverage of American boys during in the North Africa invasion and then to Sicily, Italy, the D-Day invasion in France, and the South Pacific. The Friends of the Keene Public Library sponsor the event.

In life, WWII correspondent Ernie Pyle wrote dispatches from the front lines that riveted a nation consumed by war. Ernie Pyle’s columns reached 26 million faithful readers each week. At the time of his death on April 18, 1945, Ernie Pyle was the most widely read of all correspondents covering World War II. That is because Pyle wrote about the war from the soldiers’ perspective, outside, on the ground and in the trenches alongside them. His columns appeared in more than 380 daily and weekly newspapers, and in the “Stars and Stripes,” the military's independent newspaper. Whenever Pyle came across a group of soldiers, he always introduced himself by saying: “Hi, I’m Ernie Pyle.” People back home eagerly awaited news from the battle zone as reported by Pyle because they knew they were getting the unvarnished truth about what it was like on the front.

In his one-person play “Hi, I’m Ernie Pyle,” Gary Morrison takes Pyle’s most hard-hitting, poignant, relevant and comical dispatches and presents them in a way Pyle would have if he were alive today - up close and personal. He is not just reading Pyle’s dispatches, but relating them as if he is speaking to each audience member individually.

Pyle’s words are relevant to anyone who has been in any war. Vietnam and Gulf War veterans have said that unless they knew better, they would think the play was about their own experiences. The show triggers memories in World War II veterans who often say afterward how close the show is to things they actually experienced.

Gary Morrison has performed “Hi, I’m Ernie Pyle” more than 25 times in the past six years for veterans and historical groups, senior citizen groups, libraries and holiday celebrations.  Morrison was born April 18, 1945, the day Ernie Pyle was killed by a Japanese sniper's bullet on Ie Shima, a small island off the coast of Okinawa.  Besides performing "Hi, I'm Ernie Pyle," Morrison is a working freelance journalist and photographer.  

For more information about this and other free presentations at the library, please call the library at 603-352-0157. Learn more about Gary Morrison at www.morrison-tg.com.