2016 Postmortem

DFW

(54,436 posts) Mon Oct 7, 2013, 04:34 AM Oct 2013

Helen Thomas--the final farewell

I have mentioned that I was in the States for a few days. The real reason for my trip was to be at the memorial service held for Helen Thomas at the National Press Club in downtown Washington. When the memorial for my father was held there early in 2001, Helen was the first to arrive, so there was no way I was going to miss this.

The place was packed, of course. The Helen-haters who accused her of being anti-Semitic would have gagged, since about a third of the people present were Jewish. Her niece, Suzanne Geha, the news anchor from Michigan, was there, and hosted, for lack of a better word, the memorial. There were far too many Helen stories for me to relate here or even remember. Ralph Nader was there, too, but I didn't feel like it was the right event to get into a shouting match with him (yes, I'm still pissed about 2000), so I acted like I didn't recognize him the few times we rubbed shoulders.

The first speaker, Sam Donaldson of ABC, said there were four very memorable questions Helen had asked presidents. One of them was when she asked Bush Junior since he had said the Iraq invasion wasn't about oil, and every other reason he had given for the invasion was phony, what WAS the real reason he invaded Iraq? He remembered that one outstanding character trait of Helen's was that she despised war, and was a fervent pacifist. He closed with her fourth memorable question, this time, he said, asked by Helen's ghost, and she was asking Obama now that the Republicans had finally shut the government down, and over the issue of denying health care to tens of millions of Americans, when was Obama finally going to tell them to go to hell? He must have known Helen well.

There was an intern who has worked with Helen as a 21 year old in her last year with Hearst. She told how she was out with Helen for their first dinner, and Helen asked what she was drinking. The intern replied, "water." Helen arched her eyebrows up and repeated "water?" The girl confirmed that it was water. Helen ordered her a vodka tonic and said, "I'm going to have to teach you how to drink like a reporter!" Helen had repeatedly asked her about her boyfriend (now husband), and asked if he was kind? This was very important to her. Helen had always asked me and my brother about our families every time we met up. That's just the way she was--with everybody. Family was important (more about hers below) to her, and she CARED.

The actress Diane Ladd had some nice things to say, and Judy Woodruff told about how one time some journalism students had parked themselves one Sunday night at Mama Ayesha's, Helen's favorite restaurant. They were hoping to get a glimpse of Helen. She did indeed come in, and they asked for her autograph. Instead, when she heard they were journalism students, she went with them to their table and stayed with them for half an hour. After half an hour she came back to her table, where the people she came with assumed she was done talking to the students. Wrong. Helen had only come back for her checkbook. She wrote the students out a check to help finance their studies, making them promise to see their journalism through to the end and go into the profession. This was a big deal, because despite her position as a "celebrity" journalist, Helen never had a lot of money.

But there were dozens and dozens and dozens of stories about Helen. I sat next to the son of Doug Cornell, Helen's husband of far too few years. Helen's niece said Helen used to tear up when talking about him even decades after he was gone. There were Gridiron stories galore, of course, and even Jessica Lee was there. Jessica had been one of the first black women to join Gridiron, and she sang a solo the year my father was president (it brought down the house, and Bill Clinton was practically in tears with laughter). We had met up again a few years ago, when Jessica was seriously ill, and Helen was recovering from a three month hospitalization. Jessica looked a LOT better now, which was a relief.

I wish I could remember all the quotes, but I don't. They just came on so fast and furious, we all laughed and smiled at them as they flew by. But everyone in attendance got a card with the program of speakers on one side and a photo of Helen on the other with one of her most memorable quotes. I'll scan it when I have time, and I'll post it at the end of this thread. It's now Saturday afternoon here in the McLean/Langley area of Virginia where my brother lives. I'm back off to Europe tomorrow afternoon. I still work for a living. But there was no way I was going to miss this send-off for our old friend. In that, my brother and I were VERY much not alone today.

Part 2: Monday morning, now back in Germany (minus my luggage, which is still in Paris, but that's another story)

But at least I had some time to gather my thoughts about some of what her neice has said about Helen's life.

One of eight siblings of poor Syrian/Lebanese immigrants, she was born in Kentucky but her family soon moved to Detroit. Her neighborhood was mixed with Arabs, Jews, White, black, quite diverse. Her father was a grocer who also bought up a few residence buildings. During the Depression, if his tenants couldn't pay the rent, he instead brought them food and never evicted any of them. He was one of the few who shunned the tradition of arranged marriages, which were very common in the Orthodox community of which her family was a part. He told all of his daughters that if they were to marry, it would be for love only. Her strong sense of justice and deeply felt pacifism were formed during this time.

Helen's parents also encouraged ALL their children to get an education, and Helen, as we all know, opted for journalism. When she was about 22, in the middle of World War II, she told her parents she wanted to move to Washington to look for a job there. This was a little much for the parents, who reminded her of the several (at the time) Detroit newspapers. But Helen said Washington was where the news was being made, and that's where she wanted to be. So off she went.

Although she did get a job at UPI, women journalists weren't taken overly seriously. Until the 1970s, the prestigious Gridiron Club, the top journalists' club in Washington, did not admit women. A small group of Gridiron men members (among them my father) pushed for the rules to be changed to admit women, and the principle reason for this was because they wanted Helen in. Feisty as ever, Helen had held a sort of "womens' Gridiron show" at the same time as the main one a few years before to protest the men-only rule. Sure enough, she not only got in, but Helen was President of the Gridiron Club two years before my father was.

"Aunt Helen" was always happy to be back at family gatherings in Detroit, and when she passed away in July, she was buried there in the family plot with only family around. Actually, now that I know the details, I'm glad I wasn't asked to be there for that. The service was a three hour long full Orthodox funeral, and almost entirely in Arabic!!

Here is the cover of the card everyone attending last Saturday in Washington received. Helen's quote should be posted outside the White House press room, engraved in titanium steel so that everyone who steps in there remembers what he or she is there for.

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