The Capital from Annapolis, Maryland • Page 28

KVKMNC CAPITAL The burdens of ex-President Lyndon Johnson Stearns goes free lance Stan Stearns, noted United Press International photographer who covered the White House and Congress, left the UPI a few months ago to free-lance and is now doing work for national and local publications. Stearns started his career with the Evening Capital shortly after leaving Annapolis High School in 1952. He covered major news events in the area, including the dedication of the Chesapeake Bay bridge. He then joined the United States Air Force and was stationed in Japan. While there as a public information photographer he did special work for Stars and Stripes and the 5th Air Force magazine.

He joined United Press in 1958. Stearns, 35, gained national prominence and a close second to the Pulitzer Prize in 1963 for his much-publicized photo of John-John Kennedy saluting at the funeral of his father, President John F. Kennedy. The photo that won the prize that year was a Dallas Times-Herald photo of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby in Dallas. As a UPI White House photographer he covered four presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.

He covered major and local political campaigns, conventions, and space shots at Cape Kennedy. Stearns recalls covering Mrs. John Glenn for two months during Glenn's training and final lift-off for the famous first orbit in space, hanging from a helicopter over riot-torn Washington, climbing a jungle mountain in Guadeloupe to cover an Air France plane crash, and being chewed out by President Johnson over an "unflattering" photo showing him giving a speech in Baltimore. A few months later Johnson praised him for a picture at his daughter Luci's wedding. President Niion liked a father's day picture of himself with his two daughters so much that he ordered 5,000 prints.

His work has been seen in hundreds of major newspapers around the world, including the New York Times, the New York Daily News and the London Times; in such magazines as Tihic, Life, Newsweek, and Paris Match, and on television shows. He has won many awards in contests conducted by the National Press Photographers, the World Press, and the- White House News Photographers. In 1969, Stearns was elected president of the White House News Photographers Association, and hosted a black tie dinner for President Nixon and Vice President Agnew. The late Robert Kennedy in pensive mood Noted cameraman started his career at Evening Capital I President Nixon with daughters Stearns praised for famed photo Sun Stearns 1 photography Gained prominence with photograph of Kennedy's son TW fcnstr Mn. Mi.