Sunday, March 16, 2008
Mal Johnson and National Council of Women's Organizations
Mal was a longtime member of the NCWO and served on their board. Here's their most recent flier - Mal is the left of the three faces on the front.
Monday, January 21, 2008
A colleague of Mal's has also passed on
Mal's memorial service was held at the National Press Club - where Mal's memorial service in Washington Was held. Frances Lewine was a leader in the fight to open the Press Club to women. Like Mal, she was a longtime White House correspondent. Thanks to Sonia Pressman Fuentes and Laura X for passing this along. - FW
From CNNPolitics.com Jan 21, 2008
Francis Lewine, trailblazing journalist, dies
Frances Lewine, who died at age 86, battled for women's rights in journalism
In 1965, she became AP's first full-time female White House correspondent
For nearly three decades, she was a CNN assignment editor and field producer
Was part of sex discrimination suit against AP that led to changes at news group
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Frances Lewine, who covered the White House for the Associated Press during the administrations of six presidents and spent nearly three decades as a CNN assignment editor and field producer, died Saturday of an apparent stroke. She was 86.
Jacqueline Kennedy, right, pours tea for AP correspondent Frances Lewine, left, in 1960.
Lewine was regarded as a trailblazer who battled for women's rights in journalism, fighting to open the National Press Club and the Gridiron Club -- a Washington journalists' organization -- to women.
She was assigned to the White House in 1956 to cover the activities of first ladies and the Washington social scene, but in 1965 became the AP's first full-time female White House correspondent.
"She through perseverance and dedication expanded her role to include presidents," Lewine wrote in a personal account of her life.
In 1977, she left AP to join the administration of President Jimmy Carter, and became the Department of Transportation's deputy director of public affairs. When Carter left office in 1981, Lewine moved to the newly created Cable News Network -- at age 60 -- as an assignment editor and field producer.
Sunday would have been Lewine's 87th birthday, co-workers said. She had been recovering from surgery, but was expected to return to the office as soon as this week.
Lewine was born in 1921 in New York and grew up in Far Rockaway, Long Island. She graduated from New York's Hunter College, where she edited the college newspaper and worked as a reporter for the Plainfield, New Jersey, Courier-News before moving to the Newark AP bureau.
Lewine wrote that she began covering the White House full time "with the arrival of the glamorous young Kennedys" and recalled that her working attire often was an evening dress.
She accompanied the family to Vienna, Paris, Rome and followed first lady Jacqueline Kennedy on a vacation trip to India and Pakistan, as well as two yachting excursions in the Mediterranean.
On one of those trips, the first lady's staff attempted to keep reporters in Athens, Greece, Lewine recalled. But she and several other journalists on a rented yacht followed her from island to island and, "much to the anger of the White House," kept track of the first lady's activities by listening in on ship-to-shore radio.
Lewine's wrote that she was often frustrated at being "relegated to social and family stories and sidebars while male colleagues covered the president."
She wrote that it was a "source of disappointment and anger" that the AP never considered her an equal to male White House colleagues.
That anger, she wrote, energized her "to become a leader in the movement of women journalists in the 1950s, 60s and 70s to protest discrimination against women in their jobs and assignments."
To protest the Gridiron Club's policy against women, Lewine founded the "Counter-Gridiron." A group of women reporters and sympathetic male reporters met regularly at her home to organize protests, she recalled. Eventually, she was the second woman invited to join the Gridiron.
Lewine was one of six plaintiffs in a sex-discrimination suit filed against the AP, which was settled out of court for $2 million and changed the news organization's policies.
Lewine was also a member of the National Press Club, Executive Women in Government and the Society of Professional Journalists. She was elected to the Washington Society of Professional Journalists' Hall of Fame and to the Hunter College Hall of Fame.
Last year, she was awarded the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, the highest honor bestowed by the Missouri School of Journalism.
From CNNPolitics.com Jan 21, 2008
Francis Lewine, trailblazing journalist, dies
Frances Lewine, who died at age 86, battled for women's rights in journalism
In 1965, she became AP's first full-time female White House correspondent
For nearly three decades, she was a CNN assignment editor and field producer
Was part of sex discrimination suit against AP that led to changes at news group
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Frances Lewine, who covered the White House for the Associated Press during the administrations of six presidents and spent nearly three decades as a CNN assignment editor and field producer, died Saturday of an apparent stroke. She was 86.
Jacqueline Kennedy, right, pours tea for AP correspondent Frances Lewine, left, in 1960.
Lewine was regarded as a trailblazer who battled for women's rights in journalism, fighting to open the National Press Club and the Gridiron Club -- a Washington journalists' organization -- to women.
She was assigned to the White House in 1956 to cover the activities of first ladies and the Washington social scene, but in 1965 became the AP's first full-time female White House correspondent.
"She through perseverance and dedication expanded her role to include presidents," Lewine wrote in a personal account of her life.
In 1977, she left AP to join the administration of President Jimmy Carter, and became the Department of Transportation's deputy director of public affairs. When Carter left office in 1981, Lewine moved to the newly created Cable News Network -- at age 60 -- as an assignment editor and field producer.
Sunday would have been Lewine's 87th birthday, co-workers said. She had been recovering from surgery, but was expected to return to the office as soon as this week.
Lewine was born in 1921 in New York and grew up in Far Rockaway, Long Island. She graduated from New York's Hunter College, where she edited the college newspaper and worked as a reporter for the Plainfield, New Jersey, Courier-News before moving to the Newark AP bureau.
Lewine wrote that she began covering the White House full time "with the arrival of the glamorous young Kennedys" and recalled that her working attire often was an evening dress.
She accompanied the family to Vienna, Paris, Rome and followed first lady Jacqueline Kennedy on a vacation trip to India and Pakistan, as well as two yachting excursions in the Mediterranean.
On one of those trips, the first lady's staff attempted to keep reporters in Athens, Greece, Lewine recalled. But she and several other journalists on a rented yacht followed her from island to island and, "much to the anger of the White House," kept track of the first lady's activities by listening in on ship-to-shore radio.
Lewine's wrote that she was often frustrated at being "relegated to social and family stories and sidebars while male colleagues covered the president."
She wrote that it was a "source of disappointment and anger" that the AP never considered her an equal to male White House colleagues.
That anger, she wrote, energized her "to become a leader in the movement of women journalists in the 1950s, 60s and 70s to protest discrimination against women in their jobs and assignments."
To protest the Gridiron Club's policy against women, Lewine founded the "Counter-Gridiron." A group of women reporters and sympathetic male reporters met regularly at her home to organize protests, she recalled. Eventually, she was the second woman invited to join the Gridiron.
Lewine was one of six plaintiffs in a sex-discrimination suit filed against the AP, which was settled out of court for $2 million and changed the news organization's policies.
Lewine was also a member of the National Press Club, Executive Women in Government and the Society of Professional Journalists. She was elected to the Washington Society of Professional Journalists' Hall of Fame and to the Hunter College Hall of Fame.
Last year, she was awarded the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, the highest honor bestowed by the Missouri School of Journalism.
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