March Is Women’s History Month

BY CLAIRE LYNCH

March is Women’s History Month and I am focusing on Helen Thomas who was an American journalist. Helen Amelia Thomas was born on August 4, 1920, in the small town of Winchester, Kentucky.

Thomas, a reporter and author, is probably best remembered by most Americans as a long-serving member of the White House press corps. She covered the White House during the administrations of 10 U.S. presidents - from the beginning of the Kennedy administration to the second year of the Obama administration.

Thomas was the seventh of the nine children of George and Mary Thomas who were Lebanese immigrants. Thomas said that her parents couldn’t read or write. She was raised mainly in Detroit, Michigan, where her family moved when she was four years old, and where her father ran a grocery store. She has said that her father encouraged all of his children to attend college.

Attending Detroit Public Schools, it was while Helen Thomas was a student at Eastern High School that she got her first byline in the student newspaper. It was then and there that she decided to become a journalist. She said that her “ego swelled and she was hooked for life.”

She enrolled at Wayne University (now Wayne State University) in Detroit and received a bachelor’s degree in English in 1942 because at that time Wayne University did not offer a degree in journalism. Many people have said that being a reporter suited her personality because she had a boundless curiosity. At college Thomas worked on the university newspaper covering various events.

Right after college Thomas moved to Washington, D.C. and throughout her career she had many accomplishments. She became a copy girl at the now defunct Washington Daily News where she earned $17.50 a week and she was later promoted to “cub reporter.”

In 1943 she was hired by the United

Press International and she would be with them for 57 years. A news writer, Thomas wrote radio news, especially women’s news and celebrity profiles, and she later reported on the federal government, particularly the FBI and Capitol Hill. She was assigned to the White House in 1961 and in 1974 was promoted to Chief White House Correspondent, a position she held until 2000.

Thomas then served as a columnist for Hearst Newspapers from 2000 to 2010, writing about national affairs and the White House. Thomas was the first female officer of the National Press Club, the first female member and president of the White House Correspondents’ Association and the first female member of the Gridiron Club.

Throughout her life Helen Thomas wrote six books. Her last book with co-author Craig Crawford was “Listen Up, Mr. President: Everything You Always Wanted Your President to Know and Do” which was published in 2009.

Thomas received numerous honorary doctorate degrees from Brown University, St. Bonaventure University, Michigan State University and George Washington University. She was also a commencement speaker at dozens of colleges and delivered lectures on the White House and the Presidency.

In 1971, Helen Thomas married a colleague, Douglas Cornell, who was just retiring as the White House reporter for the Associated Press. Four years later, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and she cared for him until his death in 1982.

Helen Thomas died on July 20, 2013, at her home in Washington, D.C. at the age of 92. She would have turned 93 the following month. Many female journalists memorialized Thomas on Twitter, including Judy Woodruff, who called her a “trailblazer,” and Lynn Sweet, who said she was a “glass ceiling breaking journalist.” Andrea Mitchell tweeted that Thomas “made it possible for all of us who followed.” Mitchell also said that Thomas wasn’t afraid to ask pointed questions of the president or the press secretary.

Dana Perino, who served as press secretary to President George W. Bush, remembered that on her first day as press secretary, Thomas approached her at the podium to give her words of encouragement.

President Obama released a statement calling her “a true pioneer” who “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.”

Coincidentally Helen Thomas was born the same day as President Obama and he surprised her when he took a break from his official duties and popped into in the White House briefing room unannounced on her 89th birthday. Helen Thomas was sitting in the front-row seat reserved with her name and Obama sat next to her.

Leading the roomful of reporters in singing “Happy Birthday to You,” Obama gave Helen Thomas a plate full of cupcakes, making her the first White House correspondent to have a birthday cake delivered by a president. He had just turned 48.

Helen Thomas was known as the reporter who for nearly 30 years signed off at the end of press conferences with her signature, “Thank you, Mr. President.” That phrase became so wellknown that it was included in several movies about the White House.

Many people recognized Thomas not just because of her work as a Washington, D.C. journalist but because she often made TV appearances. To many Americans, she was a well-known face.

About the occupation Helen Thomas had chosen so many years ago, as a girl in high school in Detroit, she has said:

“When you’re in the news business, you always expect the unexpected.”

“I think I’ll work all my life. When you’re having fun, why stop having fun?”

“I love my work, and I think that I was so lucky to pick a profession where it’s a joy to go to work every day.”

BY TOM MARGENAU

Most mornings, I sit down at my computer and open my emails. I find many of the same questions I’ve answered hundreds, if not thousands of times over the 25 years I’ve been writing this column. And even though it’s “deja vu all over again,” I don’t mind answering those questions because I know that not everyone has memorized all my past columns and these queries are coming from folks now facing some Social Security issues or decisions in their lives.

But for some reason, this morning’s batch of emails was different. They still were questions I’ve dealt with in the past. (I don’t think there is a single Social Security question I have never been asked.) Still, they were not the common questions I’m asked over and over again, so I thought I’d put them in today’s column.

Q: I am a bit of an amateur genealogist. I want to create a family tree and I’m trying to get whatever information I can about several deceased relatives. I know I might be able to get a little information from their Social Security records. How do I go about doing this?

A: The most easily obtainable Social Security record you can get is a copy of the deceased person’s Social Security number application card. That card lists the deceased’s name, date, place of birth and parents’ names. Just do a Google search for “Social Security form SSA-711.” That’s the form you use to get a copy of that SSN application card. The usual fee for this service is $30. And I’m sure you’re also checking out online sites like Ancestry.com.

Q: I was married to a man for 28 years. It was a troubled marriage. We divorced about 10 years ago. During most of that marriage, I was a stay-at-home wife and mother. All the children from that marriage are grown. About three years ago, I met the most wonderful man and we got married. But one complication is that he is living in this country illegally. He is working and paying taxes. (I’m not really sure how that works.) Will I ever be able to get any benefits from my first husband’s Social Security? Will I get anything from my second husband’s Social Security?

A: As long as you are married to husband No. 2, you can’t get any Social Security from husband No. 1. And because husband No. 2 is an undocumented immigrant, he won’t be able to get any Social Security -- even though he is somehow paying into the system. And that means you can’t get any spousal benefits on his record. But if your marriage to husband No. 2 ends, you could go back and get benefits from No. 1. Or if you happen to have enough credits on your own record, you could get a small retirement benefit. You would need a minimum of 10 years