Born
James Michael Keon in
Melbourne,
Victoria. During
World War II Keon worked for the Australian
Department of Information. In November 1945 he and fellow journalist
Geoffrey Sawer broadcast a series of three short-wave radio reports criticizing the policies of the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Dutch (who controlled much of the country) of their activities in
Indonesia, and their hypocrisy (mainly the U.S.) in ignoring the plight of the country and the Indonesian people. The broadcasts caused a backlash in that one arm of the government was criticizing another, and these transmissions were themselves criticized, prompting a ministerial investigation into broadcast policy, and the resignation of the short-wave division head,
William Macmahon Ball. In the late 1940s he worked as a correspondent for
United Press International. He spent much of this time covering the Communists in China and elsewhere is Southeast Asia. In January 1948 while covering the
Chinese Civil War he was walking in a field outside the west side of
Peiping with fellow journalist and farmer Erich Wilberg (from
Bremen), when gun fire was directed towards them. Keon hit the ground and was not injured but Wilberg was killed. On 1 and 2 February 1949, Keon and Spencer Moosa (the correspondent for the
Associated Press) reported on the Communist taking the city of Peiping. Soon after the Communist news agency started broadcasting that the people demand that the two journalist be expelled because they had 'libeled the people'. By the end of February all foreign correspondents, news-agencies, foreign newspapers, etc., were ordered to discontinue activities. His first novel,
The Tiger in Summer (published in 1953), was about the Chinese Communists during the transition period. Keon was the English press relations officer for the Indonesian government in 1950. While working in this position he met Elizabeth E. Marcos while in
Singapore, also in 1950. They were married in Singapore on 21 February 1951. The couple then lived in the Philippines for 18 months. He became the editor of the
Rome Daily American, which was the largest English newspaper in the post-war era in Italy, in 1953. During his time in Rome, and after the couple split, his wife, Elizabeth, was press attache for the Philippine Embassy starting in 1961, Keon's former wife, Elizabeth Marcos, was vice-governor and later governor of the Philippine province of
Ilocos Norte (1971–83). She married, secondly, in Ilocos Norte in September 1979, to businessman Ludwig Petre Rocka. Rocka was born in Tulcea, Romania, and became an Australian citizen. He was a former engineer who became a prominent Melbourne and Manila businessman (International Development & Planning Corporation) in the construction business and also sold heavy construction equipment. ==Death==