J. Vinton Lawrence, an artist, and U.S. Central Intelligence Agency paramilitary officer from their elite Special Activities Division was best known for being the wife of Anne Garrels. Lawrence passed away on April 9, 2016, at the age of 76. On September 7, 2022, his widowed wife was reported to have passed away at the age of 71.
Ann’s incredible career took her to the frontlines around the globe for NBC News, ABC News, and NPR, blazing a path for women in broadcasting while shining a light on some of the world’s most pressing conflicts.
J. Vinton Lawrence & Anne Garrels
Garrels was married to J. Vinton Lawrence, one of two CIA paramilitary officers from the Special Activities Division stationed in Laos in the early 1960s, who worked with the Hmong tribesman and the CIA-owned airline Air America until his death in April 2016.
He wrote letters to her during her time in Baghdad, Iraq, during the 2003 U.S. invasion of that country. They are included in her book, Naked in Baghdad (ISBN 0-374-52903-5). The couple toured and shared the podium during her book readings. He and his wife received an AudioFile Earphones Award for their narration.
Garrels was among the16 Western journalists who remained in Baghdad and reported live during the 2003 Iraq War. Shortly after her return from Iraq, she published Naked in Baghdad, a memoir of her time covering the events surrounding the invasion. She would subsequently return to Iraq several times for NPR.
On March 2016, Garrels published Putin Country: A Journey into the Real Russia with Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
Anne Garrels Death & Cause
Anne Garrels died on September 7, 2021, at the age of 71 after a battle with Lung Cancer. His death was confirmed by Heidi Voight, a journalist who works for NBC in Norfold, Connecticut. Heidi revealed that Anne had an on-off battle with lung cancer. Speaking about her cancer, Ann said, “It came back again in April, the lung cancer. I couldn’t go through radiation again, because of where the tumor is. It’s too close to my aorta. And chemo almost killed me last time.”
Her husband as earlier mentioned passed away in 2016. The two did not have any children. She further said in her statement where she was speaking about her cancer, “I just said, no way. My husband’s dead. I don’t have children. I’m not going to jump through hoops. I did do a treatment called cryoablation in August 2022, where they put needles in your back and freeze the tumor and it worked. It reduced it considerably, but it sent me into the worst pain imaginable for three months, and despair.”
