Helen Thomas – Dean of the White House Press Corps

Did you know that trail-blazing journalist Helen Thomas was a member of our organization? She joined when AWC was known as Theta Sigma Phi and was a member for many years.

Born in 1920, the daughter of Lebanese immigrants, Thomas knew she wanted to be a journalist when she was in high school. After covering Washington, D.C. for nearly 20 years, she became the first female member of the White House Press Corps during the administration of John F. Kennedy. She covered ten presidents over 5 decades, retiring during the Obama administration.

Opening Up the Boys’ Club

Young communications professionals may not remember Helen Thomas and it may seem strange to realize that women were not allowed to participate in many positions or organizations that we take for granted today. It was truly a boys club when she was forging her career. Some of her firsts include:

• 1959: while president of the Women’s National Press Club, she and fellow female journalists forced the National Press Club (barred to women in those days) to allow them to attend an address by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
• 1960: first woman to cover White House daily press briefings
• 1962: was instrumental in getting women invited to the White House Correspondent’s Dinner
• 1970: first woman to be named UPI’s chief White House correspondent
• 1972: only female print journalist to accompany President Nixon during his historic trip to China
• 1974: first woman to head UPI’s White House Bureau
• 1975-1976: first female president of the White House Correspondents Association
• 1975: first female member (and later president) of Washington’s historic press group, the Gridiron Club.

A Communications Hero

Thomas was a personal hero of mine because of her courage. She wasn’t afraid to ask the hard questions, she didn’t back down, and she did not let anyone tell her she couldn’t do something because she was a woman. I enjoyed watching her during White House press briefings often sparring fearlessly with the current President of the United States. She sometimes got into trouble for her bluntness, but I admired her forthrightness. It was very empowering for little girls to hear her close each press conference with her signature “Thank you, Mr. President”.

I met her briefly when she came to Des Moines a few years ago to speak at an event presented by the Chrysalis Foundation. She was elderly and a bit frail by then, but still sharp and witty and full of fascinating stories. I was proud that my employer was one of the sponsors of the event and thrilled that I was able to attend.

Obama’s Tribute Sums It Up

On July 20, 2013, Thomas died after a long illness in the Washington, D.C. apartment where she had lived for more than six decades. Upon her death, President Obama released a statement honoring her trailblazing career: “Helen was a true pioneer, opening doors and breaking down barriers for generations of women in journalism,” he stated. “She covered every White House since President Kennedy’s, and during that time she never failed to keep presidents – myself included – on their toes. What made Helen the ‘Dean of the White House Press Corps’ was not just the length of her tenure, but her fierce belief that our democracy works best when we ask tough questions and hold our leaders to account.”