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Helen Thomas Remembered as a Trailblazer at Memorial
From an immigrant family on Detroit’s east side to the front row of the White House press corps, Helen Thomas paved the way for women in journalism, in a 70-year career that took her around the world.
But for Thomas — who died last month at the age of 92 — “she always considered Detroit home,” said her niece Suzanne Geha. Thomas had a long career as a White House reporter who covered 10 presidents from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama and became famous for ending White House news conferences with the line: “Thank you, Mr. President.”
Geha and others remembered Thomas at a memorial service Thursday in Troy, Mich., at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church, the same congregation she attended as a child growing up in Detroit.
Geha and others remembered Thomas at a memorial service Thursday in Troy, Mich., at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church, the same congregation she attended as a child growing up in Detroit.
Thomas was “a giant lady” who left an “impact on so many people,” Rev. Joseph Antypas, pastor of the church, told the crowd. “We are proud of our own Helen Thomas … an American icon.”
Born in Kentucky to immigrants from what is now Lebanon, Thomas moved with her family to Detroit when she was 3 years old.
In her neighborhood, there were “Arabs living alongside Jews, Germans and Italians, Polish and Irish, whites and blacks, all seeking the same American dream for themselves and their children in the land of freedom, the land of hope and promise,” Geha said.
Thomas was proud of her ancestry, which endeared her to many in metro Detroit’s Arab-American community, but she told the Detroit Free Press in 2010: “I never felt hyphenated. I never felt I was an Arab-American. I felt I was an American.”
Her parents couldn’t read or write English, but they stressed to Thomas and their other daughters the importance of college education. Helen’s father was ahead of his time in the 1920s, said Geha, telling his daughters to be independent, educated, and self-reliant instead of relying on a man for financial support.
Thomas was seen as a trailblazer for women in journalism, fighting for them to get accepted as equals. Thomas was the first woman to be president of the White House Correspondents Association and the first woman accepted in the Gridiron Club, a group of Washington’s journalists, Geha said. She was the chief White House correspondent for United Press International, a columnist, and the author of six books.
“What she did for women is unbelievable,” Geha said. “She brought a tsunami of women and minorities” into journalism because of her achievements.
Thomas first became “smitten with journalism” while working at the newspaper at Eastern High School in Detroit. She then graduated from what is now Wayne State University. Thomas’ mother wanted her to stay in Detroit and work at one of the three main daily newspapers, but Thomas said that Washington, D.C., “was where I want to be” because that’s where “the news originates,” Geha said.
Geha, a veteran TV reporter and anchor in Michigan, also told personal stories about Thomas, including how she once dated future President Kennedy before he was married. Thomas said of Kennedy: “He was too fresh,” Geha recalled.
“She didn’t like him as a date, but she liked him as a president,” Geha said with a smile. Thomas later married another reporter, who died in 1982.
“She was an inspiration to me,” said Mae Bashi, 30, of Warren, Mich., who received a diversity scholarship at Wayne State University in Thomas’ name. “It brought tears to my eyes hearing all the work she did, her accomplishments, her dedication.”
Anan Ameri, the founding director of the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Mich., which has a bust of Helen Thomas, said that “Helen was a role model. She was powerful, honest, spoke her mind. … She had a strong sense of justice.”
Thomas spoke up for the “Palestinian people, against the war in Iraq,” said Ameri.
In recent years, Thomas became increasingly outspoken in her views, challenging U.S. presidents about the Iraq War and U.S. foreign policy, which she felt was tilted too much in favor of Israel. She was forced to retire in 2010 after making comments recorded by a rabbi that some said were insensitive toward Israelis. Speaking to the Detroit Free Press in Dearborn in December 2010, Thomas stood by her remarks: “I paid the price for that, but it was worth it, to speak the truth.”
She was blasted by Jewish groups for her remarks and as a result, Wayne State University removed her name from a diversity award they had named after her.
During the services, a vase containing Thomas’ ashes rested on a table along with a framed photo of her.
Thomas’ ashes were buried after Thursday’s services in a private ceremony at a Detroit cemetery. She is survived by three of her sisters, ages 98, 95, and 90, and several nieces and nephews.
Niraj Warikoo
Detroit Free Press