Zappone on October 9, 1947, in Tampa, Florida), became at age 16 the youngest credentialed journalist to lend press coverage to a major national political convention.
He was also the youngest contributor of evidence (his photographs) during the Warren Commission hearings into the assassination of President John F.
Kennedy.
He began his career in journalism at age 14 as a freelance photographer with The Tampa Tribune, no longer publishing, paid at the rate of three dollars per news photo used.