RECTORTOWN, Va. -- Elizabeth Ann Swift Cronin, one of two women held hostage for 444 days after the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran in 1979, died Friday in a horseback riding accident. She was 63. Cronin was the ranking political officer at the embassy when Iranian students angered by American policies seized the compound. She and Kathryn Koob, then director of the Iran-American Society, were kept largely separated from the 50 men also taken captive. After her release in January 1981, she continued her State Department career with postings in Greece, Jamaica and London and served as...