Then Sgt. Frank Praytor in Korea with the kitten ‘Mis Hap’ in 1953.
Frank Praytor, the U.S. Marine who gained a level of fame after being photographed nursing a kitten during the Korean War, died on January 10, 2018 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was 90 years old and had been in poor health for several years.
The widely distributed photo of Praytor with the kitten would prove to be more that just an endearing moment of humanity captured in the midst of a brutal war, it would later save him from being court martialed.
While serving as a combat correspondent with the 1st Marine Division in Korea 1952, Praytor took two orphaned newborn kittens under his care. An internationally syndicated photograph of him using a medicine dropper to gently feed one of the kittens he had named “Mis Hap†appeared in 1,700 newspapers.
The image of a handsome Marine helping a tiny animal struck a chord with the public. Praytor received hundreds of letters including many simply addressed to “Kitten Marine, Korea.â€
“I got letters from girls all over the country who wanted to marry me,†Praytor told the U.S. Naval Institute in a 2009 interview.
“I even got a few offers from men,†he laughed.
https://news.usni.org/2018/01/25/korean-war-marine-made-famous-kitten-photo-dies
