TITLE:  Rhea (Talley) Stewart, Obituary,  March 23, 2001

SUBMITTERS:  Journal Inquirer
             Manchester,CT (issue Apr 11, 2001)

FORMATTED:   ABishop, Apr 2001

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Rhea (Talley) Stewart


Rhea (Talley) Stewart, journalist and writer, 85, of Avery Heights, Hartford, widow of 
Arthur Stewart, died Friday, March 23, 2001, at Hartford Hospital.
Born in Richmond, Va., in 1915, she graduated from John Marshall High School in that city,
 and later received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Richmond, where she 
was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. As a staff member of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, she 
twice won sweepstakes prizes in feature writing from the Virginia Press Association. 
In 1943 she moved to Louisville, Ky., as a writer on the Louisville Courier-Journal, and 
in 1946 to New York, where she corresponded for the Houston Post, the Memphis Commercial 
Appeal, the Louisville Courier-Journal, and several other newspapers, while writing 
free-lance articles. 
On her marriage in 1958, she moved to Manchester, where she lived until moving to Avery 
Heights, Hartford, in 1991. She was the author of "Fire in Afghanistan," published in 1973,
the history of King Amanulah and his attempt in the 1920s to make his country very 
progressive, which resulted in his expulsion by a fundamentalist element very similar to 
the Taliban who began to overrun Afghanistan in late 1996. This was translated in 1990 
into Pushm, the language of the Afghan-Pakistani frontier, only the third Western book to 
be thus translated since 1815. Banned in Afghanistan when first published because of its unwelcome depiction of the beginnings of the then- reigning dynasty, it was widely accepted by the left-wing government which took power in 1978, and was excerpted in the Afghan native language press and radio. Later it was rejected by the Taliban regime, along with all Western media.
In the course of many visits to Afghanistan, she interviewed two presidents, Hafizullah 
Amin and Najibullah, just before their downfalls, and met the deposed king, Zahir Shah, 
then living in Rome. She wrote many articles, gave many talks on the subject, and 
participated in seminars. 
She was a member of the Society of Women Geographers and Overseas Press Club of New York. 
In the Hartford area she was active in various organizations including World Affairs 
Council, Connecticut Opera Guild, The National League of American Pen Women, and Women's 
Association of the University of Hartford.
She is survived by her cousin, Elizabeth Lordley Arnold of Matthews, N.C.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, at Chapel at Avery Heights.
There are no calling hours.
Arrangements are being handled by Ahern Funeral Home, 111 Main St., Route 4, Unionville.





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