Eddie Doherty
Encyclopedia
Edward J. "Eddie" Doherty (October 30, 1890–May 4, 1975) was a famed American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 newspaper reporter, best-selling author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

, Oscar
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

-nominated screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

, co-founder of the Madonna House Apostolate
Madonna House Apostolate
The Madonna House Apostolate is a Catholic Christian community of lay men, women, and priests dedicated to loving and serving Jesus Christ in all aspects of everyday life. It was founded in 1947 by Catherine Doherty in Combermere, Ontario and has established missionary field houses...

, and later ordained a priest in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church
Melkite Greek Catholic Church
The Melkite Greek Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See as part of the worldwide Catholic Church. The Melkites, Byzantine Rite Catholics of mixed Eastern Mediterranean and Greek origin, trace their history to the early Christians of Antioch, Syria, of...

.

His life

Eddie was born into a large Irish
Irish American
Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...

 Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

 family in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, the son of a Chicago police officer.

As a child he dreamed of becoming a priest, and at the age of 13 he entered a Servite monastery in Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

. Within two years, however, he left to return to Chicago and reunited with his childhood sweetheart, Marie Ryan.

Starting as a newspaper copy boy and later becoming a police beat reporter, Eddie covered stories in the days of Al Capone
Al Capone
Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...

 and other gangster
Gangster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Some gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from mob and the suffix -ster....

s, slowly making a name for himself.

Eddie wed Marie Ryan on December 15, 1914, and she bore him a son, Eddie Jr., on July 11, 1917. Eighteen months later, however, disaster struck as Marie died in the flu epidemic of 1918. Eddie was devastated, and turned his back on the Catholic Church.

Later, Eddie met his second wife, Mildred Frisby, at the newspaper and they were married on July 16, 1919 outside the Catholic Church and in secret. They were forced to reveal their secret marriage when she became pregnant, and gave birth to Eddie's second son, Jack Jim.

Soon, Eddie was at the top of his game. Papers and billboards headlined him as "America's Star Reporter", and others bragged that he was "America's Highest Paid Reporter". But once again, disaster struck, as Mildred died in a freak accident while out for a walk alone. This time, however, Eddie found peace for his grieving in returning to the Catholic Church.

In 1940, Eddie met Catherine de Hueck
Catherine Doherty
Ekaterina Fyodorovna Kolyschkine Doherty, better known as Catherine Doherty, CM, Servant of God was a social activist and foundress of the Madonna House Apostolate...

 at her Friendship House
Friendship House
Friendship House is a missionary movement founded in the early 1930s by Catholic social justice activist Catherine de Hueck Doherty, one of the leading proponents of interracial justice in pre-Martin Luther King, Jr...

 mission while doing a story on Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...

. Their friendship turned to romance, and they wed on June 25, 1943.

In 1944, Eddie's screenplay for the World War II film The Sullivans
The Fighting Sullivans
The Fighting Sullivans, originally released as The Sullivans, is a 1944 American biographical war film directed by Lloyd Bacon and written by Edward Doherty, Mary C. McCall Jr. and Jules Schermer...

was nominated for an Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

 for Best Original Story
Academy Award for Best Story
The Academy Award for Best Story was an Academy Award given from the beginning of the Academy Awards until 1957, when it was eliminated in favor of the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay, which had been introduced in 1940.-1920s:...

.

Meanwhile, the staff at Friendship House did not take well to Catherine's marriage to Eddie, and complained that Catherine no longer lived in celibacy as they were required to do. This and other differences eventually led to Eddie and Catherine moving to Combermere
Combermere, Ontario
Combermere is a village located along the Madawaska River in south-eastern Ontario, Canada. It is part of Township of Madawaska Valley.Combermere is best known as home to Madonna House, but the community hosts a farmer's market and also provides access to numerous lakes and rivers for cottagers and...

, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and starting a new apostolate called Madonna House
Madonna House Apostolate
The Madonna House Apostolate is a Catholic Christian community of lay men, women, and priests dedicated to loving and serving Jesus Christ in all aspects of everyday life. It was founded in 1947 by Catherine Doherty in Combermere, Ontario and has established missionary field houses...

 in 1947. Here they founded their own newspaper, Restoration
Restoration (newspaper)
Restoration is a Canadian English language Catholic newspaper based in Combermere, Ontario, and circulated internationally. It was founded in 1947 by the famed American newspaperman Eddie Doherty and his wife, social justice activist Catherine Doherty....

, which has remained in continuous circulation.

In 1969, Eddie obtained permission to transfer from the Latin Rite to the Byzantine Rite
Byzantine Rite
The Byzantine Rite, sometimes called the Rite of Constantinople or Constantinopolitan Rite is the liturgical rite used currently by all the Eastern Orthodox Churches, by the Greek Catholic Churches , and by the Protestant Ukrainian Lutheran Church...

 Melkite Greek Catholic Church
Melkite Greek Catholic Church
The Melkite Greek Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See as part of the worldwide Catholic Church. The Melkites, Byzantine Rite Catholics of mixed Eastern Mediterranean and Greek origin, trace their history to the early Christians of Antioch, Syria, of...

 (which allows married men to become priests), and on August 15, 1969, Eddie was ordained a Catholic priest at the age of seventy-eight by Archbishop Joseph Raya
Joseph Raya
Joseph Raya , born in Zahlé, Lebanon, was a prominent Melkite Greek Catholic archbishop, theologian, civil rights advocate and author. He served as metropolitan of Akko, Haifa, Nazareth and All Galilee from 1968 until 1974 and was particularly known for his commitment to seeking reconciliation...

.

In 1975, after a period of ill-health and surgery, Eddie slipped into a coma. He died the next day, on May 4, 1975. A simple wooden cross marks his grave, reading "All my words for the Word."

See also

  • Madonna House Apostolate
    Madonna House Apostolate
    The Madonna House Apostolate is a Catholic Christian community of lay men, women, and priests dedicated to loving and serving Jesus Christ in all aspects of everyday life. It was founded in 1947 by Catherine Doherty in Combermere, Ontario and has established missionary field houses...

  • Catherine Doherty
    Catherine Doherty
    Ekaterina Fyodorovna Kolyschkine Doherty, better known as Catherine Doherty, CM, Servant of God was a social activist and foundress of the Madonna House Apostolate...

  • Restoration (newspaper)
    Restoration (newspaper)
    Restoration is a Canadian English language Catholic newspaper based in Combermere, Ontario, and circulated internationally. It was founded in 1947 by the famed American newspaperman Eddie Doherty and his wife, social justice activist Catherine Doherty....

  • Eastern Catholic Church

External links

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