by John Norris
“He was an Irish bully boy”: McLendon and Smith, Don’t Quote Me, 30–39.
After six hours: Young, “Mary McGrory—Washington’s Top Woman Reporter.”
“There were 36 anguishes”: Von Drehle, “Columnist Illuminated.”
She described Welch: Mary McGrory, column, May 12, 1954.
As Mary recalled, “All of a sudden”: “Queen of the Corps,” Time, November, 10, 1958, 71–72.
“So you have joined”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 10.
Readers asked Mary the color: Young, “Mary McGrory—Washington’s Top Woman Reporter.”
A caller to the Star’s switchboard: Mary McGrory Papers, container 10, May 24, 1955.
The cartoonist Herbert Block: Herbert Block, A Cartoonist’s Life (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998), 342.
Longtime CBS news anchor: Roger Mudd, interview by author, December 8, 2009.
Howard Shuman, a longtime: Howard E. Shuman, interview by Donald Ritchie, July 22, 1987, Senate Oral History Project, Senate Historical Office, Washington DC.
Mary not only emulated: Belford, Brilliant Bylines, 270–78; McGrory, interview by Currie; Mary McGrory, column, August 2, 1970.
As the buzz around: Von Drehle, “Columnist Illuminated.”
The hearings degenerated: Mary McGrory, column, June 9, 1954.
“It also brought forth”: Mary McGrory, column, June 10, 1954.
Tom Oliphant, who was: Thomas Oliphant, “A Journalist’s Truth and Beauty,” Boston Globe, April 25, 2004.
Mary was fond of describing: Sara Sanborn, “Byline Mary McGrory: Choice Words for Bullies, Fatheads, and Self-Righteous Rouges,” Ms., May 1975, 59–61, 74–75.
According to Mary, her father: Mary McGrory Papers, containers 139 and 165; “National Press Club Fourth Estate Award,” C-SPAN, Washington, DC, November 5, 1998.
By Mary’s own account: “National Press Club Fourth Estate Award.”
If Mary’s father brought: Mary McGrory, interview by John Arnold Schmalzbauer, Washington, DC, 1994, transcript made available by Schmalzbauer.
“She was not a laughing Colleen”: Mark Shields, interview by author, March 13, 2010.
“I only heard her speak”: Elizabeth Shannon, interview by author, December 21, 2009.
Irish Catholic priests threatened: Tom O’Conner, interview by author, April 21, 2010.
The McGrory half: Brent Bradberry, of Moscow, Idaho, was of great assistance in helping research the genealogy of the McGrory and Jacobs families, as was family correspondence shared by the Beatty and McGrory families.
The school, located on: Gloria Negri, “Recalling Latin Roots; Girls’ Class of ’35 Delights in Annual Reunion,” Boston Globe, June 8, 1995.
As seventh graders: Mary McGrory, columns, July 17, 1983, and September 14, 1975; Von Drehle, “Columnist Illuminated.”
The years at Girls’: Mary McGrory, column, August 20, 1995.
Mary had her heart set: Helen Dudar, “A Pulitzer Prize,” New York Post, May 10, 1975.
“With the passing of the years”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 165.
It was a dark time: Mary McGrory Papers, container 165, journal entry of September 2, 1939.
Her mood rebounded considerably: Braden, She Said What? 24–34; Von Drehle, “Columnist Illuminated.”
She had been attracted: Braden, She Said What? 24–34; McGrory, interview by Currie.
As author and media historian: Eric Alterman, Sound and Fury: The Making of the Punditocracy (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999), 22.
Mary longed to work: McGrory, interview by Currie; Von Drehle, “Columnist Illuminated”; Sanborn, “Byline Mary McGrory.”
Frustrated, Mary appealed directly: “Lady with a Needle,” Newsweek, March 21, 1960, 114–15; McLendon and Smith, Don’t Quote Me, 30–39.
In March 1946: Sanborn, “Byline Mary McGrory.”
Her story about Mac: Mary McGrory, column, March 7, 1946.
In 1946, the Times: Arthur Gelb, interview by author, October 14, 2010.
She finally had freedom: Mary McGrory Papers, container 165.
More important, “in Boston”: McLendon and Smith, Don’t Quote Me, 30–39.
“It was heaven”: Colman McCarthy, “Mary McGrory, Post Columnist, Dies; Appreciation,” National Catholic Reporter, May 7, 2004.
“Newsrooms are large places”: Mary McGrory, column, April 8, 1977.
Not long after settling: Mary McGrory Papers, containers 168, 128, and 139, 1949, including draft of George Kennedy article; “Memories of Mary McGrory,” Washington Post, April 27, 2004; Young, “Mary McGrory—Washington’s Top Woman Reporter”; Mary Bader, interview by author, January 7, 2010; Mary McGrory, column, December 23, 1961; Gordon Brown, “Bobby: My Moral Beacon,” New Statesman, April 30, 2007.
Back at the Star: Gale Reference Team, “Biography—McGrory, Mary (1918–2004),” in Contemporary Authors (Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Publishing, 2005).
She described Senator Alexander: Mary McGrory, column, March 22, 1953.
But Mary was not cowed: Mary McGrory, column, February 22, 1953.
Johnson liked the quote: Mary McGrory Papers, container 139.
After the piece ran: Mary McGrory Papers, container 5, Senator Lyndon Johnson letter of March 20, 1953.
“Some old hands took”: McLendon and Smith, Don’t Quote Me, 30–39.
He told Mary that: John Stacks, Scotty: James B. Reston and the Rise and Fall of American Journalism (Omaha, NB: Bison Press, 2003), 171–72.
“The paper was very antsy”: Anthony Lewis, interview by author, March 9, 2010.
Arthur Gelb concurred: Arthur Gelb interview.
“It’s quite remarkable that”: Braden, She Said What? 24–34.
Phil and Katharine Graham: McGrory, interview by Currie.
On her trips, she: Mary McGrory Papers, container 169.
“It didn’t matter where”: Gerry Kirby, interview by author, September 1, 2010.
Chapter Two: Arrived
Joining a small corps: Mary McGrory, column, January 18, 1966.
“Unlike Mr. Stevenson”: Mary McGrory, column, September 17, 1956.
Mary was proud: McGrory, interview by Currie; Mary McGrory, column, May 24, 1992.
Mary’s cousin Brian McGrory: Brian McGrory, “Simply the Best,” Boston Globe, November 11, 2003.
Mary acknowledged that many feminists: Mary McGrory, column, July 21, 1985.
“Not a gentle world”: Dan Rather, interview by author, March 1, 2010.
They are always communicative: McLendon and Smith, Don’t Quote Me, 30–39.
David Broder noted that: Morning Edition, National Public Radio, April 22, 2004.
“It seemed to me”: Jack Germond, interview by author, October 15, 2009.
Noting that Noyes had: Mary McGrory Papers, container 62, telegrams of September 18, 20, and 21, 1956.
“Much as we deplore”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 62.
After visiting Sidney, Montana: Mary McGrory Papers, container 139.
Kefauver, the would-be vice president: Blair Clark, unpublished autobiography, courtesy of the Clark family.
They were all mock missives: Mary McGrory Papers, container 62.
Mary had first laid eyes: Mary McGrory, column, November 24, 1963; John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Press Panel Oral History Interview with White House Correspondents George Herman, Peter Lisagor, and Mary McGrory, John F. Kennedy Oral History Collection, August 4, 1964.
JFK then asked her out: McGrory family correspondence.
As Mary later recounted: JFK Library Press Panel.
During the debate: Mary McGrory, column, November 24, 1963.
“Here was this handsome”: JFK Library
Press Panel.
It is no wonder: Thomas Maier, The Kennedys: America’s Emerald Kings (New York: Basic Books, 2003), 246.
JFK began trying the hats: JFK Library Press Panel.
Where Kefauver delivered a standard: Mary McGrory Papers, container 62.
Stevenson was a gifted speaker: Mary McGrory, column, October 27, 1954.
“For want of a better term”: Al Spivak, interview by author, February 22, 2010.
“She periodically shouted back”: Herbert Klein, Making It Perfectly Clear (New York: Doubleday, 1980), 68.
A pair of members: Mary McGrory, column, July 23, 1965.
One editor joked that: Mary McGrory Papers, container 163.
A number of congressional graybeards: “National Press Club Fourth Estate Award”; Russell Baker, interview by author, March 17, 2010.
“She was absolutely loyal”: Roger Mudd interview.
“Men naturally like to explain”: McLendon and Smith, Don’t Quote Me, 30–39.
Mary complained halfheartedly: McLendon and Smith, Don’t Quote Me, 30–39; Mary McGrory Papers, container 125, Mary McGrory speech at the Omaha Press Association, April 17, 1982.
“The fact that I don’t raise”: Braden, She Said What? 24–34.
Mary would dance: Belford, Brilliant Bylines, 270–78.
Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg: Mary McGrory Papers, container 5.
“Is the Star really like this”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 1.
Mark Shields appeared to be: Mark Shields interview.
“She loved music”: Don Graham, interview by author, December 1, 2009.
Hosting also allowed Mary: McLendon and Smith, Don’t Quote Me, 30–39.
But while Mary was: Federal News Service, National Press Club Luncheon Address with Helen Thomas, May 16, 1996.
They could not ask: Nan Robertson, The Girls in the Balcony (New York: Random House, 1992), 100–3.
Reporter Haynes Johnson concurred: Haynes Johnson, interview by author, November 12, 2009.
Mary bitterly resented it: Mary McGrory, column, July 21, 1985; Braden, She Said What? 24–34.
In September 1957, George Minot: Mary McGrory Papers, container 1.
“Why don’t we hire her?”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 139.
“She writes swiftly and well”: “Queen of the Corps.”
“I have not forgotten”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 139, 1958.
“The world is yours”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 1.
On a single day: Mary McGrory Papers, container 139, Pyke Johnson letter of November 7, 1958, Wayne Andrews letter of November 7, 1958, Edward Kuhn letter of November 7, 1958, and Henry Robbins letter of November 7, 1958.
“When are you going to write”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 1, Stewart Alsop letter of November 14, 1958.
Mary joked to one: Mary McGrory, The Best of Mary McGrory: A Half Century of Washington Commentary, ed. Phil Gailey (Kansas City, MO: McMeel, 2006), xii–xviii.
In January 1959: James Butler, “Mary McGrory,” Editor & Publisher, January 17, 1959, 48–49.
37 Newsweek ran its own: “Lady with a Needle.”
The Globe was one: Mary McGrory Papers, container 128, editor’s note above McGrory Boston Globe column of February 3, 1960.
Mary felt strongly about: Belford, Brilliant Bylines, 270–78.
“Mary did something remarkable”: Russell Baker interview.
Within a year of syndication: Haynes Johnson interview.
Baker, his wife, Drury: Russell Baker interview.
Both Mary and Baker: Mary McGrory, review of Advise and Consent, by Allen Drury, January 25, 1959.
The country was still: Michael O’Brien, John F. Kennedy: A Biography (New York: Thomas Dunne Press, 2005), 424.
Senators Hubert Humphrey: Mary McGrory, column, July 21, 1959.
“The sun-tanned senator”: Mary McGrory, column, May 3, 1959.
Mary added a comment: Mary McGrory, column, May 4, 1959.
As Mary put it: JFK Library Press Panel.
“He loved it”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 162.
Years later, when she was asked: JFK Library Press Panel.
She argued that JFK’s: Mary McGrory, column, January 3, 1960.
But behind the scenes: Mary McGrory Papers, container 7.
With a challenge from: Mary McGrory, column, February 21, 1960.
She thought he was awkward: Ibid.
Mary and Blair were: Blair Clark autobiography; Anthony Summer and Robbyn Swan, Sinatra: The Life (New York: Vintage, 2006), 263.
“She is kindly and stolid”: Mary McGrory, column, March 30, 1960.
Mary’s editors, delighted with: Mary McGrory Papers, container 63, cable of March 29, 1960.
Yet despite his charisma: David Broder, “Consummate Politician,” Washington Post, November 17, 1993.
“I had been with Hubert Humphrey”: JFK Library Press Panel.
“They have withstood gnawing winds”: Mary McGrory, column, April 4, 1960.
“There is a wounded rhinoceros”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 1, Mary McGrory letter to Liz Acosta, May 6, 1960.
Mary watched as a misty-eyed: Mary McGrory Papers, container 128.
“I don’t mind campaigning”: JFK Library Press Panel.
As Mary’s colleague Duncan Spencer: Spencer, “A Reporter at Her Primitive Best.”
While they both practiced: Mary McGrory, column, August 20, 1978.
“They screamed ‘we want Kennedy’”: Mary McGrory, column, July 10, 1960.
McCarthy was no fan: “Unforeseen Eugene,” Time, March 22, 1968, 30.
Hailing from the small town: Dominic Sandbrook, Eugene McCarthy and the Rise and Fall of Postwar American Liberalism (New York: Anchor Press, 2005), 3.
Mary was stirred: Mary McGrory, column, July 24, 1960.
“Thus ended a tentative”: Mary McGrory, column, July 14, 1960.
“I never would do that”: McGrory family correspondence.
“Two weeks ago”: Mary McGrory, column, July 24, 1960.
“When Mr. Nixon presides”: Mary McGrory, column, August 11, 1960.
She described Johnson playing to: Mary McGrory, column, October 13, 1960.
His own partisans feared that: Mary McGrory, column, October 6, 1960.
“There is so much immediacy”: “A Writer’s Life.”
Mary couldn’t help but notice: Mary McGrory, column, September 28, 1962.
While she disliked Nixon: Mary McGrory, column, October 8, 1960.
“But the Senator has learned”: Mary McGrory, column, October 19, 1960.
“I have followed you for four years”: JFK Library Press Panel.
“As he arrived in Hyannis Port”: Theodore H. White, The Making of the President 1960 (New York: Atheneum, 1961), 15.
When he called out: JFK Library Press Panel.
With some satisfaction, Mary noted: Mary McGrory Papers, container 10.
JFK’s father, Joseph Kennedy: Mary McGrory Papers, container 7.
With some amusement, Mary watched: Mary McGrory, column, November 10, 1960.
“Hard-hearted Jack with tears”: Sally Bedell Smith, Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House (New York: Random House, 2005), 6.
Chapter Three: He Would Have Liked It
“A sharp wind knifed”: Mary McGrory, column, January 14, 2001.
53 The official program: Todd Purdum, “From That Day Forth,” Vanity Fair, February 2011, http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2011/02/kennedy-201102.
Mary was suddenly hit: JFK Library Press Panel.
Clark had just been promoted: David Halberstam, The Powers That Be (Cha
mpaign: University of Illinois Press, 2000), 384; Gary Paul Gates, Air Time: The Inside Story of CBS News (Berkeley, CA: Berkley Publishing Group, 1979), 108.
“There was something of the Irish mother”: John Seigenthaler, interview by author, March 24, 2010.
“When he was in the White House”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 8.
“We knew that before Sy Hersh”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 9.
“As his father before him”: Mary McGrory, column, December 7, 1997.
As a frustrated Stevenson: Mary McGrory Papers, container 128.
“It was as if, discouraged”: Mary McGrory, column, May 6, 1961.
“But Kennedy would: Mary McGrory Papers, containers 128, 96, and 8; Richard Reeves, President Kennedy: Profile of Power (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994), 153–54; Mary McGrory, columns, May 26 and 31, 1961, June 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6, 1961, and November 24, 1963; JFK Library Press Panel.
Irritated by Clark’s continued: Clark family papers, Blair Clark letter to Mary McGrory, June 12, 1961.
“How fierce I think we would have been”: Ibid.
Mary was uneasy about: Mary McGrory, column, November 22, 1968.
Haynes Johnson, a close friend: Haynes Johnson interview.
“Bobby tried to teach me”: Mary McGrory Papers, container 7.
As Mary confided to a fellow visitor: Fred Harris, Does People Do It? A Memoir (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008), 154.
Racing back down the street: Mary McGrory, column, November 22, 1968.
He invited all of the Catholics: Mary McGrory, column, June 4, 1963.
It struck Mary that: Mary McGrory, column, July 26, 1961.
With Kennedy approaching the end: Mary McGrory Papers, containers 128 and 7; Mary McGrory, column, January 16, 1962; McGrory, interview by Currie; Kevin Hamilton, “Books; Understanding JFK—Two Detailed Studies of His Life, Death,” Seattle Times, October 31, 1993; JFK Library Press Panel; Roberta Wyper, “Mary McGrory: Tiger in the Typewriter,” W, October 28–November 4, 1977, 20–21.
She had once written: Mary McGrory Papers, container 2.
“It is merely the one”: Mary McGrory, column, October 12, 1962.
“At 1:50, the atmosphere”: Mary McGrory, column, November 7, 1962.
“For Richard M. Nixon”: Mary McGrory, column, November 8, 1962.