Legendary Helen Thomas, the dean of the White House press corps for 57 years, will be the special guest of the Falls Church News-Press at its annual July Summer Social at its offices Thursday, July 22.
The event is open to all friends of the News-Press free of charge. Catered by Ledo's Pizza, it will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 929 W. Broad St.
Thomas, currently a Hearst Newspapers columnist, served 57 years as a correspondent for United Press International and as its White House bureau chief. She first joined the White House press corps on a daily basis at the beginning of the John F. Kennedy administration in January 1961.
Currently, the Falls Church News-Press is honored to be the only newspaper in the Washington, D.C., region to carry Thomas' column every week.
Thomas has pioneered the role of women in her profession. She was the only woman print journalist to accompany then President Nixon to China in January 1972, and has followed with trips to China covering Secretary of State Kissinger and Presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush Sr. She had the distinction of having traveled around the world several times with Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush Sr., and covered every economic summit during that span.
She served as president of the Woman's National Press Club (now merged with the National Press Club) from 1959-60, and was the first woman officer of the National Press Club after it opened its doors to women members following a 90-year span ofa ll male membership.
She was named the "Newspaper Woman of Washington" in 1968 by the American Newspaper Women's Club and became the first woman officer of the White House Correspondents Association, and its first woman president in 1975-76.
She became the first woman officer of the Gridiron Club in 1975 (at that time a 90-year-old institution) and its president in 1993-94.
A commencement speaker at many colleges and universities, Thomas has delivered lectures and speeches on the White House and the Presidency throughout the nation. In 1998, she received the International Women's Media Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award and has received over 30 honorary doctorate degrees.
She was the first recipient of the Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award established by the White House Correspondents Association in April 1998, honored at that occasion by President and Mrs. Clinton.
Copies of Thomas' book, Front Row at the White House, published in 1999, will be available for signing by her at the July 22 event, which is held in conjunction with the Greater Falls Church Chamber of Commerce.