Anne Morrissy Merick was a television field producer best known for convincing the Pentagon to overturn an edict that restricted women in the press corps from covering combat during the Vietnam War.

As a college student, Merick was the first woman to be named sports editor of The Cornell Daily Sun and the first woman admitted to the press box at the Yale Bowl.

In 1967, Merick was sent to cover the Vietnam War. She was ABC’s first female television field producer, and one of the few female network producers covering the war.

She also co-authored War Torn: The Personal Experiences of Women Reporters in the Vietnam War, a collection of remembrances published in 2002.

Merick died May 2, 2017, in Naples, Florida. She was 83.