Helen Thomas

Helen Thomas is a Hearst Newspapers Columnist who served for 57 years as a correspondent for United Press International and White House bureau chief. She graduated from Wayne State University and joined the United Press International and the Washington Press Corps in 1943. For twelve years she wrote radio news for UPI, her workday beginning at 5:30 AM. Eventually she covered the news of the federal government including Justice, the FBI, Health and Human Services and Capitol Hill.

In November 1960, she began covering then President-elect John F. Kennedy, following him to the White House in January 1961 as a member of the UPI team. It was during this first White House assignment that Thomas began closing presidential press conferences with "Thank you, Mr. President."

Thomas was the only woman print journalist traveling with then President Nixon to China during his breakthrough trip in January 1972. Since then, she went to China with then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush. She has the distinction of having traveled around the world several times with Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush, during the course of which she covered every Economic Summit.

Some of Thomas' accomplishments are: having served as President of the Women's National Press Club; being the first women officer of the National Press Club; becoming the first woman officer of the White House Correspondents Association and its first Woman President; and receiving the 1998 International Women's Media Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. In November 1976, she was named by the World Almanac as one of the twenty-five most influential women in America. Also, she was the first recipient of the Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award established by the White House Correspondents Association, and honored by President and Mrs. Clinton at its annual Dinner and Presentation of this Award in April 1998. Thomas has received thirty Honorary Doctorate degrees from many Colleges and Universities, including Brown, Northeastern University and Michigan State University to name a few.

Thomas has delivered lectures and speeches on the White House and the Presidency throughout the country. She is the author of "Dateline White House" and "Front Row At The White House."