Ben Robertson ( journalist ) Benjamin Franklin Robertson , Jr . better known as Ben Robertson ( 1903 – 1943 ) was an American author , journalist and World War II war correspondent . He is best known for his memoir " Red hills and Cotton : An Upcountry Memory " first published in 1942 and still in print . He died in 1943 in a plane crash in Portugal . The SS Ben Robertson launched in Savannah , Georgia in 1944 was named for him . Early life and education . Ben Robertson was born June 22 , 1903 in Calhoun , which became Clemson , South Carolina in 1943 . He was the son of Mary ( née Bowen ) Robertson and Benjamin Franklin Robertson . His father was the South Carolina state chemist and had his offices in Calhoun at Clemson Agricultural College , now Clemson University . Ben attended Clemson where he wrote for the college newspaper , was a first lieutenant in the corps of cadets , editor - in - chief of the year book his senior year and graduated in 1923 with a degree in horticulture . He then went to the University of Missouri where he received a degree in journalism in 1926 . Career . His professional career in journalism began with a short stint at the News and Courier in Charleston . His first major job after graduating was at the Honolulu Star - Bulletin . In 1927 he went to Australia to work for The News in Adelaide . From 1929 to 1934 he reported for the New York Herald Tribune , after which he went to work for the Associated Press in New York and London . In 1935 he went to the United Press and also sent stories to the Anderson Independent in South Carolina . In 1937 Ben Robertson returned to AP and also did disaster relief work for the American Red Cross during the Ohio River flood of 1937 . He even shipped out for a time on the MS City of Rayville . In 1938 pioneering musicologist and folklorist John Lomax visited Ben Robertson in South Carolina and Ben introduced him to the all - day " singing festivals " of the area which enabled Lomax to preserve the lyrics of many local folksongs . His work as a war correspondent began in 1940 covering England for the New York paper PM . He worked with Edward R . Murrow covering The Blitz of London . In most of 1942 he roved for PM and the Chicago Sun in the Pacific , Asia and North Africa . In the later part of the year he returned to the Herald Tribune and was on his way to London to head its British bureau when he was killed in a plane crash . Books . In his short life , Ben Robertson published three books . The first was " Travelers Rest " , published in South Carolina in 1938 , was an historical novel based on his ancestors ' experience in South Carolina . According to Time magazine , the book was not received well by his neighbors in Clemson . The second was " I See England " , published in 1941 by Alfred A . Knopf , which told of his interaction with the British during watime . The last was " Red hills and Cotton : An Upcountry Memory " , his best - known book was published in 1942 by Alfred A . Knopf and republished in 1960 by the University of South Carolina Press . It has been in print ever since . Ben Robertson ' s papers are in the manuscript collection of Clemson University . Death and after . Ben Robertson was one of 25 passengers killed on February 22 , 1943 in the now famous crash of the Pan Am Yankee Clipper into the Tagus River at Lisbon , Portugal . Fellow passenger Jane Froman was one of 14 who survived . His body was recovered and identified by a name bracelet he had on one wrist . After a funeral service in the Clemson College Chapel on April 18 , 1943 , he was buried in the Robertson family plot in West View Cemetery in Liberty , South Carolina . His epitaph reads : I rest in thy bosom , Carolina . Thy earth and thy air around and above me . In my own country , among my own , I sleep .