'First Lady of the Press' to speak at PSU

A legendary White House journalist credited with paving the way for female reporters will be the keynote speaker at the 2007 Profiles of Women in Government Lecture Series at Pittsburg State University.

Helen Thomas, commonly referred to as “The First Lady of the Press,” will speak at the lecture series at noon on Tuesday, Nov. 13, at the McCray Recital Hall.

Thomas, a former White House Bureau chief, has covered every president since John F. Kennedy, when she followed him to the White House in 1961 as a United Press International correspondent. It was during that assignment that she became famous for her sign-off “Thank you, Mr. President,” when closing presidential press conferences. She served with UPI for 57 years, traveling around the world with presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush.

Thomas has been named one of the “25 Most Influential Women in America” by The World Almanac. After leaving her post at UPI earlier this year, she joined Hearst Newspapers as a syndicated columnist.

The Women in Government lecture series is presented by PSU and the PSU Foundation through the support of the Helen S. Boylan Foundation.

For more information on the lecture, contact the Office of Public Relations or Kathleen Flannery in Continuing and Graduate Studies at 620-235-4181.

---Pitt State---