Penelope Laingen, who united nation with yellow ribbons during Iran hostage crisis, dies at 89
Last edited Sun Apr 18, 2021, 09:56 AM - Edit history (3)
I wasn't a big fan of the song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree," but it was a huge hit in 1973 when it came out. The meaning of the song was buried in the Iran hostage yellow ribbon thing.
Penelope Laingen, who united nation with yellow ribbons during Iran hostage crisis, dies at 89
Obituaries
Penelope Laingen, who united nation with yellow ribbons during Iran hostage crisis, dies at 89
By
Emily Langer
April 16, 2021 at 3:36 p.m. EDT
As the wife of a U.S. diplomat, Penelope Laingen had trekked to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Malta, loyally serving alongside her husband in the long tradition of Foreign Service families. {snip} Her most public ordeal began on Nov. 4, 1979, when Iranian militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, where her husband, L. Bruce Laingen, was chargé daffaires. Laingen one of three hostages detained, separately from their embassy colleagues, at the Iranian Foreign Ministry was the highest-ranking official among the 52 Americans held in captivity for 444 days.
That event, known as the Iran hostage crisis, led to the deaths of eight U.S. servicemen in an aborted rescue attempt and contributed to the defeat of President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election. For Mrs. Laingen, as for other relatives of the hostages back in the United States, it was a personal trauma a time of fear and worry, of missed birthdays and lonely holidays, and a period in their lives when, as Mrs. Laingen put it, you couldnt think about anything else.
{snip}
To the American public, she was perhaps best known for the yellow ribbon she tied around the oak tree outside her home in Bethesda, Md., a symbol of devotion to the hostages that she displayed until her husband returned. The yellow ribbon soon proliferated across the United States and has endured in American culture as a sign of solidarity with deployed troops, among other causes.
Mrs. Laingen died April 3 in Marshall, Va., at the home of one of her three sons. She was 89 and had breast cancer, said her son Chip Laingen. Bruce Laingen, a former U.S. ambassador to Malta,
died in 2019 at 96.
{snip}
Emily Langer
Emily Langer is a reporter on The Washington Posts obituaries desk. She writes about extraordinary lives in national and international affairs, science and the arts, sports, culture, and beyond. She previously worked for the Outlook and Local Living sections. Follow
https://twitter.com/emilylangerWP
Tony Orlando & Dawn - "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" (1973)
3,254,220 viewsMay 24, 2013
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Rockin' The Palace. June 02, 1973. Performed at The Hollywood Palace on Vine St. just above Hollywood Boulevard.