Billy Rowe made an impression well beyond the battlefield
Billy Rowe spent nearly two years as a war correspondent in the Pacific theater for the Pittsburgh Courier, but that phase of his life hardly defined him.
In fact, the New York Times didn't even mention Rowe's stint covering the war in his 1997 obituary. The omission was understandable, as the rest of his life provided ample material.
William Leon Rowe was born Dec. 31, though it's unclear exactly which year and where it occurred. His Times obit says it was 1914 in St. Matthews, South Carolina, but various official documents from the 1940s list the final day of 1912 and 1913 as his birth date -- and both of them say he was born in Philadelphia.
Whatever the specifics, all agree that Rowe's entree to fame came via the producer Florenz Ziegfeld. Rowe worked as a porter and elevator operator for Ziegfeld, who encouraged him to begin writing.
After doing some work for various newspapers around Harlem, Rowe joined the Courier as a New York-based reporter in 1935. He covered mostly entertainment, from the big-band scene to theater to films, but also developed relationships with some of the top athletes of the day, most notably Joe Louis.
By the time war broke out, Rowe was firmly established as the Courier's "theatrical editor," turning out lengthy weekly notebooks of celebrity news. Late in 1943, though, he headed off to cover the war, first via a training stint in California and then on to the Pacific with the 93rd Infantry Division.
The 93rd, a segregated division that had first seen action in World War I, shipped out early in 1943. The division was based at Bougainville in the Solomon Islands for months, and Rowe sent home stories and photos every week chronicling various aspects of the troops' lives.
"Many stories before this one have made it clear that jungle fighting is far different from any phase of past or present warfare," he wrote in May 1944. "In most cases it centers around the activity of a comparatively small group of men who patrol the sightless no-man's land between enemy and Allied lines, contacting and keeping tabs on the enemy. It's a mighty dangerous job.
"At times you are so close to death your entire life unfolds as you move deployed into enemy land. As the shadows of the afternoon grow longer one becomes assailed with all the corrosive thoughts that have ever been thought. They penetrate your brain like a surgeon's scalpel."
Rowe remained in the Pacific through October 1945, later reporting from the Philippines and Japan. He was attached to Gen. Douglas MacArthur's headquarters for a time, and covered the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.
By the end of the year he was back in New York and back to his columns of celebrity news, a role he would maintain into the early '50s as his profile grew. He began serving as an adviser to movie studios and gained influence as a conduit between the mostly White establishment and the Black community.
In 1951, New York Mayor Vincent Impellitteri sought Rowe's input on candidates he might consider to fill a vacant deputy commissioner spot with the New York Police Department. Impellitteri decided Rowe himself would be the best fit for the job, which focused largely on public relations -- "maintaining a healthy rapport between the citizenry and the Police Department," as the Courier put it.
Rowe thus became the first Black deputy commissioner of the NYPD. His appointment was not especially well-received at the time given his lack of law enforcement-related experience, but he made his mark in the role -- notably establishing a civilian complaint review board -- before resigning in 1953.
He spent the rest of his career in public relations and marketing, handling publicity for celebrities like Sugar Ray Robinson and Sammy Davis Jr. in addition to his longtime friend Joe Louis.
Rowe died in September 1997 in an assisted-living facility in New Rochelle, New York after a long bout with Alzheimer's disease.