Sybil Stockdale, Who Fought to End Torture of POWs, Dies

Sybil Bailey Stockdale, a Navy wife who fought to end the torture of U.S. prisoners of war in Vietnam, has died.

Stockdale's son, Sid, said Tuesday that his mother died Oct. 10 at a hospital after suffering from Parkinson's disease. She was 90.

Stockdale is the wife of the late Vice Adm. James Bond Stockdale. She found her calling after her husband's plane was shot down during the Vietnam War in 1965 and he was taken prisoner. Stockdale organized military wives who demanded the U.S. government pressure North Vietnam to abide by the Geneva Convention.

Stockdale met regularly with then-President Richard Nixon and confronted a North Vietnamese delegation at the Paris Peace Talks.

The military credited Stockdale with helping secure the return of her husband and other POWs in 1973.