Longtime AP international journalist Earleen Fisher, whose career spanned five decades, dies at 78

Obit Earleen Fisher - (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Earleen Fisher, an editor and writer whose career across five decades with The Associated Press gave her a front-row seat to some of the late 20th century's most chaotic and challenging news stories, has died. She was 78 and counted Yasser Arafat and the Dalai Lama among her interviews.

Fisher died peacefully Wednesday morning at The Maples at Waterford Crossing nursing home in Goshen, Indiana, of complications from Parkinson’s disease, said her cousin, Phil Dowty. She had been ill from Parkinson's for a number of years.