Fernand Auberjonois

Fernand Auberjonois (25 September 1910, Valeyres-sous-Montagny, near Lausanne, Switzerland – 27 August 2004, Cork, Ireland) was a highly respected journalist who worked as the foreign correspondent of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Toledo Blade.

Throughout most of the Cold War, Auberjonois was one of the most admired American reporters based in London. From 1956 until his formal retirement in 1983 and after, he covered many of the world's biggest news stories. During World War II, he enlisted in the U.S. and served on secret assignments, including setting up radio transmissions for the Allies to divert the German's attention from the real invasion site on D-Day. From World War II through the Cold War, he worked for many print organizations, and also for NBC and Voice of America.

He was the son of René Auberjonois (1872–1957), one of Switzerland's best-known post-Impressionist painters.

Auberjonois married into European (Napoleonic) royalty. His wife was Princess Laure Louise Napoléone Eugénie Caroline Murat (Paris, 13 November 1913 – New York City, 10 May 1986), a descendant of Napoleon Bonaparte's sister Caroline and her husband Joachim Murat, King of Naples and King of Sicily, previously married in Cannes, 3 August 1931 and divorced in 1939, to Jean-Paul Frank (Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 26 August 1905 – Los Angeles, California, 19__. They married in November 1939. The couple's son, actor René Auberjonois, was born in 1940.

Honours and awards

• Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur (France)
• Croix de guerre 1939–1945 with four palmes (France)
• Legion of Merit (United States)
• Polonia Restituta (Poland)

External links

• Obituary from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette