Dylan Byers at Politico reported: "Helen Thomas, whose career covering the White House dated back to the Kennedy administration, died on Saturday at the age of 92, the Gridiron Club announced in an email to members on Saturday."
"Former Gridiron Club president Helen Thomas, our first female member, died Saturday morning at her Washington apartment after a long illness," Gridiron's Susan L. Hahn wrote in an email to members. "She would have been 93 next month."
Thomas was a trailblazer for female reporters, and when UPI was at its height, she was considered the dean of the White House press corps. However, as conservatives came to power in Washington, Thomas became increasingly hostile to the presidents she covered, beginning with Ronald Reagan. She thought he "lacked soul."
In the Bush years, Thomas berated press secretaries for the War on Terror, suggesting they were in favor of indiscriminate killing. Her career as a White House legend collapsed in a 2010 interview with a rabbi in which she said Israelis should "get the hell out of Palestine" and "go home" to Germany and Poland.
