Sarah McClendon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Sarah Newcomb McClendon | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Gender | female |
| Born | July 8, 1903 |
| Birth place | Tyler, Texas |
| Circumstances | |
| Occupation | journalist |
| Marital status | widowed (prior to her death) |
| Spouse | John Thomas O'Brien (deceased) |
| Children | Sally Newcomb MacDonald |
| Religious belief(s) | Roman Catholic |
| Notable credit(s) | |
Sarah Newcomb McClendon (June 8, 1910 – January 8, 2003) was a long-time White House reporter who covered presidential politics for a half-century. McClendon founded her own free-lance news service as a single mother in the post-World War II era, and became known as a model for women in the press and as a vocal advocate of various causes, particularly those of United States military veterans. McClendon was best known, however, for her questions an United States Presidential press conferences, which often ranged from aggressive to brash or rude.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
The youngest of nine children, McClendon was born July 10, 1903 and reared in Tyler, Texas. McClendon's childhood home, the "Bonner-Witaker-McClendon House," is now a Texas Historical Landmark.[1]
McClendon graduated from Tyler Junior College, and from the University of Missouri (at Columbia journalism school.[2], [3]
After graduation, McClendon worked for the Tyler Courier-Times, the Tyler Morning Telegraph and the Beaumont Enterprise.[2] As a reporter for the Beaumont Enterprise, McClendon wrote a series of articles crititizing the Women's Army Auxililiary Corps -- the very branch of the service in which she would soon enlist.[4]
[edit] Military career
With America's entry into World War II, McClendon volunteered to serve in the United States Army. After learning that she did not have the academic qualifications to join military intelligence, McClendon enlisted in the Women's Army Auxililiary Corps, and reported for duty in September, 1942. McClendon initially served in the WAAC's public relations department, then attended Officer Candidate School, was promoted to Lieutenant and eventually was assigned the Army Surgeon General's office as a public relations officer.[2],[4]
While in the service, McClendon met and was briefly married to John Thomas O'Brien. O'Brien, a paper salesman, abandoned McClendon before the birth of their daughter and died during World War II.[2], [3] McClendon later described O'Brien as an alcoholic who "had little to recommend him but my own loneliness."[2] The couple's daughter, Sally Newcomb MacDonald, was born in June, 1944.
As a result of the pregnancy, McClendon was honorably discharged from the military, also in June 1944. A single mother, McClendon used her Washington, D.C., press connections to obtain a job as a Washington correspondent, starting work the same month as her daughter's birth.[5]
[edit] Washington career
In June 1944, after McClendon's discharge from the Women's Army Corps, famed newspaperman Bascom Timmons hired McClendon as a Washington correspondent for the Philadelphia Daily News.[2] In 1946, when Timmons discharged McClendon to make room for reporters returning from service in World War II, McClendon started her own service, the McClendon News Service,[3] which provided Washington dispatches and columns to member newspapers and personal subscribers. A single mother, McClendon often brought her young daughter to news conferences.[3]
For the next several decades, McClendon attended White House press conferences on behalf of the McClendon News Service, becoming a Washington institution. She became known for her sharp questions.
[edit] Conspiracy theories
McClendon was a proponent of a number of conspiracy theories. For example, less than a month after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, McClendon wrote "My woman's intuition tells me that Lee Harvey Oswald could not and did not do that by himself. He was just a diversion. It could have been the work of the underworld, using Oswald, with his peculiar background, as a smoke screen, or it could have been a national or international plot." In 1993, McClendon was a founding member of the "Coalition on Political Assassinations," a group founded to entertain alternate theories regarding President Kennedy's death, and as late as 1996, McClendon described the Warren Commission as an intentional or unintentional "cover-up."[6]
Similarly, in 1995, McClendon told Diane Rehm in 1995 that she was "quite sure" that Vince Foster was murdered.[2]. Although McClendon's 1996 book accepted the Air Force's explanation that "Project Mogul" was responsible for the Roswell UFO incident,[7] by 1997, McClendon's news dispatches regarding the Clinton administration's interest in Roswell were widely circulated on the internet.[8]
[edit] Religious views
McClendon converted to Catholicism in college.[citation needed]
[edit] Works
- McClendon, S; My eight presidents, Wyden Books, 1978. ISBN 0-88326-150-2.
- McClendon, S; Minton, J., Mr. President, Mr. President! : my 50 years of covering the White House, General Pub. Group, 1996. ISBN 1-57544-005-9.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ See McClendon House website, retrieved August 2, 2006
- ^ a b c d e f g Sarah McClendon: 1910-2003 Reporter had a need to know, by Carl P. Leubsdorf, The Dallas Morning News, January 9, 2003
- ^ a b c d Sarah McClendon, Veteran Washington Reporter, Dies at 92, by Adam Bernstein, The Washington Post, January 8, 2003, retrieved July 31, 2006
- ^ a b McClendon, Sarah; Minton, Jules (1996). in Allerton, Colby: Mr. President, Mr. President!: my 50 years of covering the White House. General Publishing Group, 42-45. ISBN 1-57544-005-9.
- ^ McClendon, Sarah; Minton, Jules (1996). in Allerton, Colby: Mr. President, Mr. President!: my 50 years of covering the White House. General Publishing Group, 11. ISBN 1-57544-005-9.
- ^ McClendon, Sarah; Minton, Jules (1996). in Allerton, Colby: Mr. President, Mr. President!: my 50 years of covering the White House. General Publishing Group, 84-87. ISBN 1-57544-005-9.
- ^ McClendon, Sarah; Minton, Jules (1996). in Allerton, Colby: Mr. President, Mr. President!: my 50 years of covering the White House. General Publishing Group, 211. ISBN 1-57544-005-9.
- ^ Dégh, Linda (2001). Legend and belief: dialectics of a folklore genre. Indiana University Press, 449, n.5. ISBN 0-253-33929-4.
[edit] References
- McClendon, S., Knight, M., Interviews with Sarah McClendon, Washington Press Club Foundation, 1991.
- Transcripts of the 1991 Washington Press Club interviews.
[edit] External links
- Role Model: Sarah McClendon, by Roberta Oster Sachs, Columbia Journalism Review, May/June 2003 issue, retrieved July 31, 2006
