Kathy Willens, pathbreaking Associated Press photographer who captured sports and more, dies at 74

NEW YORK (AP) — Kathy Willens, a pathbreaking photojournalist who helped cement women's place behind the lens everywhere from the Super Bowl to war-torn Somalia during her nearly 45-year career at The Associated Press, died Tuesday. She was 74.

Willens died at her Brooklyn home of ovarian cancer, diagnosed shortly after her 2021 retirement, her nephew Ben Willens said.

A giving colleague but fierce competitor who brooked no interference between her and a picture, Willens was among the AP’s first female staff photographers. She went on to shoot more than 90,000 images — of presidents and Pope John Paul II, protests and war, sports triumphs and human tragedy.

“A stroll through her archive is a stroll through history,” said former AP Director of Photography J. David Ake, who edited many of Willens' pictures over the last two decades of her career. It could be a challenging task, given her penchant for shooting a lot of frames.

“But in those images, there was always a gem. Something she saw, that no one around her did,” Ake said by email.

Specializing in sports, Willens became a photographer of such stature that the New York Yankees paid tribute to her on the field when she retired. In a pre-game ceremony, manager Aaron Boone gave her a framed print, signed by former pitcher David Cone, of her own photo of him after he threw a perfect game in 1999.

It had been a long path from her introduction to photojournalism in the mid-1970s, when there were few women in the business.

“When covering sports, I was almost always the only female on the field,” Willens told BuzzFeed News in 2021. “There were no role models for me.”

Willens developed her interest in cameras from her father, Lionel, a jewelry store owner and hobbyist photographer who kept a darkroom in their Detroit-area home, her nephew said. Her mother, Gertrude, was a dental hygienist, and the parents' various pursuits would sometimes blend in unexpected ways, such as when the family gathered to view slides from a vacation.

“We’d be looking at pictures of trips, and every now and then, you’d see some molars,” Ben Willens said.

Kathy Willens got her professional start as a freelancer for suburban Detroit newspapers in 1974. She soon landed a job at the now-gone The Miami News as a photo lab technician, then as a staff photographer, racking up front-page and other prominent pictures. The AP hired her in 1976.

Working from Miami, Willens covered the 1980 Mariel boatlift, when nearly 125,000 Cubans came to the U.S. in six months, and the aftermath of deadly rioting that occurred the same year after the acquittal of four police officers charged with fatally beating a Black insurance executive.

She photographed Ronald Reagan campaigning to become president in 1980, George H.W. Bush surf-fishing shortly after winning the office eight years later and Britain’s late Queen Elizabeth II visiting the Bahamas in 1977. And in one of the images that would build Willens' sports portfolio, she captured then-world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali at a Miami Beach boxing gym.

“For me, sports has the ability to capture these moments of extreme emotion,” Willens told BuzzFeed. “The joy of it, it’s right there in front of you all the time.”

Over her career, she would cover six Olympics, 11 Super Bowls and countless NBA finals, World Series and other championships. Among her points of pride was seeing a 1977 photo she made of tennis trailblazer Billie Jean King grace the cover of King’s 2021 autobiography ”All In.”

Yet Willens also was drawn to stories about Florida's Haitian and Cuban immigrants, work that would become part of an exhibition at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida in 2004.

After transferring to AP's New York headquarters in 1993, she was dispatched to Somalia in the throes of its civil war. Some of Willens' fellow photojournalists were captured and killed covering the country around that time, and Willens told BuzzFeed that after returning to New York, she decided she wanted to shoot more news and sports closer to home.

Her New York coworkers and competitors got to know her as a photographer who could not be kept out of the picture. She would get into position and get her shot, whatever grit, ingenuity, scrum-savvy and know-how it took.

“She just would not be denied a picture. And her photography was just simple and precise, but really exquisite, at the same time," said AP business photo editor Peter Morgan, who worked with Willens for years while overseeing photo coverage of the New York metro area.

“She was just really good at finding the right moment,” he said. "Sometimes you had to look at her pictures for an extra second to really get them. But once you saw them, you got how brilliant they were.”

She would do plenty of that, plus such projects as an eight-month-long documentary photo series on mothers in New York state prisons. Even during the last six months of her career, Willens put her all into trying to pull off a difficult project, about a high school for struggling students, that ultimately proved impossible.

Willens earned a roster of journalism awards, including an Associated Press Managing Editors Award for Reportorial Excellence and multiple wins in the Baseball Hall of Fame and Pro Football Hall of Fame photo competitions.

While working at AP, Willens for years taught photojournalism as an adjunct professor at New York University. Even a few months ago, she was meeting with an acquaintance to share her expertise, her nephew said.

She was also a keen birder, often making pictures of her finds in Brooklyn's Prospect Park.

Her nephew plans a memorial service there.

In this 2021 photo provided by the Willens family, Kathy Willens poses for a photo with a copy of Billie Jean King's autobiography "All In" with an image Willens took of King in 1977 on the cover. (Willens family via AP)

FILE - Nana Mu and Chase Che pose for their wedding photos in Brooklyn Bridge Park, June 30, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

FILE - Smoke billows through buildings in Manhattan as seen from Brooklyn after the collapse of New York's World Trade Center, Sept. 11, 2001. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

FILE - New York Yankees pitcher David Cone is lifted onto the shoulders of his teammates by catcher Joe Girardi, left, as manager Joe Torre joins in the celebration after Cone threw a perfect game against the Montreal Expos during "Yogi Berra Day" at New York's Yankee Stadium, July 18, 1999. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

FILE - A Salvadoran Green Cross medical worker waves a white flag in El Salvador, April 19, 1981. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

FILE - Senior citizens at First Union Brokerage Services, Inc., in the Diplomat Mall in Hallandale, Fla., keep an eye on stock market prices, Oct. 20, 1987, after Monday's market collapse. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

FILE - Waves splash President-elect George Bush as he casts a line while surf-fishing in Gulf Stream, Fla., Nov. 12, 1988, shortly after winning the 1988 Presidential election. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

FILE - Somalis watch as Pakistani soldiers from the United Nations peacekeeping forces sweep through their neighborhood on June 9, 1993, in Mogadishu, in search of snipers responsible for the ambush of U.N. soldiers. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

FILE - A Border Patrol officer clubs a Haitian refugee who broke through gates of Krome Detention Center, in Miami, 1981. (AP Photo/ Kathy Willens, File)

FILE - Haitian refugees living on Cayos Lobos, Bahamas, gather on Nov. 12, 1980. They were part of a group of 102 Haitian refugees stranded on the island for 39 days. (AP Photo/ Kathy Willens, File)

FILE - Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, wave to youths at Nassau's Clifford Park after their arrival in Nassau, Bahamas, on Oct. 15, 1977. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

FILE - Billie Jean King competes against Kerry Reid during the semifinals singles match in the Family Circle Magazine Cup tournament in Hilton Head Island, S.C., on April 2, 1977. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

FILE - World heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali has his head gear adjusted by Chris Dundee, boxing trainer from the well-known Fifth Street Gym in Miami Beach, Fla., on Dec. 21, 1977. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

FILE - People walk past ruins in the Culmer section of Miami on May 19, 1980, after rioting over the acquittal of four police officers charged with the 1979 beating death of Arthur McDuffie, a black motorcyclist. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

FILE - New England Patriots strong safety Malcolm Butler (21) intercepts a pass intended for Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Ricardo Lockette (83) during the second half of NFL Super Bowl XLIX football game Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

Yankees' Aaron Boone presents an autographed picture to Kathy Willens on June 28, 2021, in New York, of her picture of New York Yankees pitcher David Cone after Cone threw a perfect game. (Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori won the U.S. Open mixed doubles title with a 7-6 (0), 7-5 victory Thursday over Taylor Townsend and Donald Young, who fell just short of a Grand Slam title in his final match before retiring.

Errani, who won a career Grand Slam in women's doubles with fellow Italian Roberta Vinci, added her first career mixed doubles title to the Olympic gold medal in women's doubles she won last month with Jasmine Paolini.

“It’s incredible for me this year. It’s amazing,” Errani said.

Townsend and Young, who have been friends since they were kids, were given a wild card into the event for what was the 35-year-old Young's final tournament. The former top-ranked junior hadn't played much in recent years, having made the switch to pickleball.

“Obviously wasn’t the result we wanted,” Young said, “but I can’t think of a better spot, place to go out in, having watched that as a kid, and playing with someone I’ve known our whole life. It’s pretty cool for me.”

He and Townsend made their way through the draw, knocking off defending champions Anna Danilina and Harri Heliovarra in the quarterfinals.

But Errani and Vavassori, the No. 3 seeds, dominated the tiebreaker and then won the match by breaking Townsend's serve.

Errani hadn't played a mixed doubles event for eight years before partnering with Vavassori at Wimbledon. They were knocked out in the first round, then reached the quarterfinals at the Olympics before coming to New York.

Young's parents coached Townsend, who lost in the women's doubles semifinals with Katerina Siniakova after they won the Wimbledon title.

The 28-year-old Townsend said after the match that she hoped fans seeing two Black players in the finals, after Coco Gauff won the women's title in Flushing Meadows last year and Frances Tiafoe is in the men's semifinals Friday, would inspire more of them to play.

Young was then presented with a framed collage of photos of himself playing at the U.S. Open.

“For me, Donald and I, we go so far back. I mean, in life in general,” Townsend said. "It’s not the end. We both live in Atlanta, so I’m going to see him a ton and follow what he’s doing in the next chapter. But it’s cool to be able to close the book this way. Again, being able to leave here with some hardware when a lot of people didn’t, that’s the most special thing.

“So, I mean, it’s fantastic. I’m glad to be able to do it by his side.”

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

Donald Young, right, and Taylor Townsend, of the United States, talk to the crowd after loosing to Sara Errani, of Italy, and Andrea Vavassori, of Italy, during the mixed doubles final of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

Taylor Townsend, of the United States, and Donald Young, of the United States, react in the first set against Sara Errani, of Italy, and Andrea Vavassori, of Italy, during the mixed doubles final of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

Sara Errani, of Italy, and Andrea Vavassori, of Italy, hold up the championship trophy after defeating Taylor Townsend, of the United States, and Donald Young, of the United States, in the mixed doubles final of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

Taylor Townsend, of the United States, and Donald Young, of the United States, hold up the runner-up trophy after losing to Sara Errani, of Italy, and Andrea Vavassori, of Italy, during the mixed doubles final of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

Sara Errani, of Italy, and Andrea Vavassori, of Italy, react after defeating Taylor Townsend, of the United States, and Donald Young, of the United States, in the mixed doubles final of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)