Helen Thomas

Back when I was in college John Kennedy was president. I used to listen to his press conferences and there were always this lady’s questions that seem to take president Kennedy and then President Johnson by surprise. Her name was Helen Thomas.

                                                               

Go ahead several years and I am now a White House correspondent for Metromedia Group Television and I knew Helen Thomas as a colleague this time as we were both covering the Nixon presidency.

I was a newbie. A fledging journalist who happened to have the greatest job in the world.

I didn’t know all the ropes or the protocol of being a White House correspondent, but I soon learned by generally keeping my mouth shut and observing and asking a few questions to the more seasoned reporters covering the White House at the time. I remember Dan Rather being exceptionally nice to me. We both had come out of the Corinthian Television Group stations to bigger and better jobs; he out of Houston and me out of Indianapolis.

Helen Thomas became the doyenne of the White House Press Corps, representing the United Press International wire service.

She was in an unspoken leadership position along with the AP correspondent and the correspondents of the three networks. Helen was one of the first and few women to hold that White House position. The rest of us sat in the back whenever there was a news conference and hoped the President would call on us for our question.

I remember her as being kind of frumpy, a little standoffish, not very good looking. She was puffy in the cheeks and had an uneven smile, but she was a damn good journalist, ask the ten presidents she covered.

Helen Thomas died the other day. She was 92. Saint Peter watch out. She does her homework.