Helen Dewar (born August 7, 1936, Stockton, California — died November 4, 2006, Alexandria, Virginia) was a reporter for The Washington Post for 25 years. She worked at the Post for 43 years, rising through the ranks to cover the United States Senate for a quarter of a century (1979-2004).
Eric Pianin, a colleague and editor, noted: "She was also a brilliant student of the Senate. She knew the rules as well as the parliamentarian."[1] The Post's political columnist David Broder called her "one of the best reporters I ever knew". The last story written by her to be published in the Post, on January 20, 2005, predicted that, for various reasons, President George W. Bush would have difficulties having his legislative agenda enacted by Congress.[2]
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Dewar graduated from Stanford University. Her first major reporting job was at the Northern Virginia Sun in Arlington, Virginia, where she covered education for two years. In 1961, she began her career at the Post in earnest, where she started out covering Arlington and Fairfax and going on general assignments.
By 1975 she had already spent a year on Capitol Hill. She was assigned to the national desk in 1976 and tracked Jimmy Carter's ultimately successful presidential campaign.
She died from breast cancer on November 4, 2006, aged 70, at a hospice in Alexandria, Virginia.
She left no immediate survivors.