Given her jet-black hair, thick black eyeliner, black clothes and combat boots (which she often slept in while on assignment), people didn't always know what to think upon meeting her. She was quirky, the sort who excused herself from a social gathering by saying she had to wash her socks. And she was fearless, the kind of woman who not only kept the camera rolling while under fire, but zoomed in on a soldier who was shooting at her.
Colleagues learned quickly to appreciate all that this CNN camerawoman was. Beyond her rich personality, which included deep optimism and kindness, she brought to her profession top-notch technical abilities, unmatched dedication and an approach to work that inspired others to push themselves.
Moth sought out, even demanded, assignments in conflict zones. She barely survived being shot in the face in Sarajevo in 1992, only to go back as soon as she was physically able. The multiple reconstructive surgeries that followed, as well as the hepatitis C she contracted from a consequent blood transfusion, were mere obstacles she moved around.
But more than three years after being diagnosed with colon cancer, her tremendous life journey has come to an end.
Moth, known for her gutsiness, striking appearance, distinctive humor and sense of fun, died early Sunday in Rochester, Minnesota. She was 59.
“Dying of cancer, I would have liked to think I'd have gone out with a bit more flair," she said with a laugh last spring during an interview with a CNN documentary crew that had traveled to Texas, where she was visiting friends.
“The important thing is to know that you've lived your life to the fullest," she said then, before tubing down a river in Austin, Texas; taking jaunts to Cape Cod and the Canadian Rockies; and piloting a houseboat up the Mississippi River -- replete with beer and Cuban cigars. “I don't know anyone who's enjoyed life more."
Born Margaret Wilson in Gisborne, New Zealand, to a homemaker and a man who made swimming pools, she got her first camera at age 8. She later changed her name to Margaret Gipsy Moth, a nod to the airplane, which was appropriate for a woman who had a penchant for jumping out of planes, barefoot.
She said she never aspired to be a photojournalist. Rather her path, she explained, was mostly driven by a love of history and her desire to see it unfold firsthand.
Whether she was amid rioters after Indira Gandhi's assassination or covering a long menu of wars spanning continents, Moth felt she and her colleagues were the lucky ones.
“You could be a billionaire, and you couldn't pay to do the things we've done," said Moth, who had most recently called Istanbul, Turkey, home.
Reported to be New Zealand's first camerawoman, she came to the U.S. and worked for KHOU in Houston, Texas, for about seven years before moving to CNN in 1990.
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