William R. Moore (1910-1950)
Newsman Bill Moore was killed by mortar fire July 31, 1950, after dropping his pencil and notebook to help an Army lieutenant wounded in a North Korean attack near Chinju. He was 40. Moore had been missing for several months when the AP received word of his death in October 1950 from a corporal captured in the same action. He said he had met Moore earlier that day. "I thought he was an officer and said Sir, would you like a cup of coffee?'," the corporal said. "He replied, ‘You don't have to ‘Sir' me, fellow. I'm a correspondent. I'm Bill Moore of the AP.' ... Nice fellow. Real friendly and a real story teller." Moore, a native of Nowata, Okla., joined the AP in Denver in 1937, and served in the Army in Korea during World War II before returning to the AP in New York in 1946. He went to Korea in 1948 as a correspondent and was there at the outbreak of war on June 29, 1950.