McKenna, Rollie (1918–2003)

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McKenna, Rollie (1918–2003)

American photographer. Born Rosalie Thorne in Houston, Texas, Nov 15, 1918; died June 15, 2003, in Northampton, MA; dau. of Henry Thorne (army pilot) and Bel (Bacon) Thorne; awarded undergraduate and graduate degrees from Vassar College; m. Henry Dickson McKenna (architect), April 27, 1945 (div. 1949); no children.

Began career photographing architecture (1948), then moved into portraiture, becoming best known for her penetrating images of poets, artists, and musicians, including Robert Graves, Truman Capote, Sir Herbert Read, Elizabeth Bishop, Marianne Moore, Dame Edith Sitwell, Anne Sexton, Elizabeth Hardwick, W.H. Auden, Robert Frost, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and Dylan Thomas, among many others.

See also autobiography Rollie McKenna: A Life in Photography (Knopf, 1991); and Women in World History.

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