1962 March 1, Washington, DC, — Helen Thomas, UPI reporter in Washington, DC.
(© Bettmann/CORBIS)
White House Press Corps stalwart Helen Thomas has announced her retirement in the wake of the controversy around her recent comments about Israel. Thomas, 89, has been a part of the press corps since the early 1960s and traditionally ended all presidential press conferences by saying, “Thank you, Mr. President.”
The Elliptical Saloon 
Helen Thomas, who was born in 1920, arrived in Washington to join the UPI in 1943. Only in 1961 did she join the White House Press corps, but she was at work in the city long before ’61.
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Helen Thomas got the last words (“Thank you, Mr. President”) at the press conferences only when she was the chief WH reporter for United Press International, when UPI was one of the two main wire services in the WH Correspondents’ Assn.