Edward T. Folliard

Edward Thomas Folliard (May 14, 1899 – November 25, 1976) was an American journalist. He spent most of his career at The Washington Post, for which he covered the White House from the presidency of Calvin Coolidge to that of Lyndon B. Johnson. He had friendly relations with both Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower that continued beyond those men's presidencies.

In addition to covering the presidency, Folliard also reported on many major news events such as Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight. During World War II, he reported from European battlefronts and POW camps.

He won several awards, including the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Telegraphic Reporting (National) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was presented to him by President Richard M. Nixon.

Early life and education He was born in Washington, D.C. His parents had immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland. He grew up in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood and attended public and parochial schools in the District.

He was fired from the Post in 1932. He returned to the Herald, then went back to the Post in 1934 after the paper's purchase by Eugene Meyer. He remained at the Post until his retirement in 1967, and continuing to contribute occasional articles to the paper thereafter.

In 1955, Folliard stayed with Eisenhower for seven weeks during his recovery from a heart attack in Denver.

"I was never on intimate terms with John F. Kennedy," Folliard said in a 1967 interview, "but knew him reasonably well." After Kennedy was elected president, Folliard "wrote a story saying that the talk about Kennedy buying his victory was nonsense." Folliard himself said, "My admiration of Kennedy is just without limit. I just think he was probably the most brilliant President of our time." Folliard accepted Pierre Salinger's claim that Kennedy had written "the whole of his Inaugural Address," which Folliard called "the best Inaugural speech I ever heard."

Folliard reported on the 1963 White House ceremony in which Sir Winston Churchill was awarded honorary American citizenship. "Heavy clouds floated overhead," wrote Folliard, "but the scene was brightened by some of the most luminous prose ever heard in Washington."

In March 1962, Folliard wrote for America magazine about the presidential prospects of George Romney, which, he noted, had been advanced by words of support from Nixon and Eisenhower. Folliard noted that Romney would be testing his electability by running for governor of Michigan in November 1962. In answer to the question of why the GOP would "choose a novice" when Nixon, Rockefeller and Goldwater were all available, Folliard explained that as in 1940, "the Republicans now see a popular Democrat in the White House and doubt whether any of their pros can dislodge him."

Folliard was in the motorcade in Dallas when Kennedy was assassinated. He pursued the issue doggedly throughout the episode: FOLLIARD: Mr. Chambers, to go back to that opening question, you accepted Alger Hiss' challenge and publicly said that he had been at least a member of the Communist Party. Does that mean that you are now prepared to go into Court and answer a suit for slander or libel?CHAMBERS: I do not think Mr. Hiss will sue me for slander or libel.

Folliard covered the famous 1939 concert held by Marian Anderson at the Lincoln Memorial and arranged by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt after the Daughters of the American Revolution had refused to permit the black opera singer to perform at its auditorium, Constitution Hall. "Marian Anderson stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial yesterday, sent her matchless contralto voice out over the air and held a crowd of 75,000 enthralled," wrote Folliard. "It was one of the largest assemblages Washington had seen since Lindbergh came back from Paris in '27."

In 1940, he went on a 7,000 mile tour of U.S. bases in the Caribbean. He felt embarrassed on December 7, 1941, because a piece by him appeared in the Post declaring that while the Japan situation was "threatening," diplomacy was still underway. He went to Europe in late 1944, reported on the war. He was a front-line correspondent at the Battle of the Bulge, crossed the Rhine with the Ninth Army, and was in Paris on V-E Day. After V-E Day, he traveled around Germany and visited prisoner-of-war camps.

Post-retirement He retired officially from the Post in 1966 but continued writing for the newspaper "well into the 1970s." Among his post-retirement articles were "reminiscences of major events that he had helped to record for history – the attack on Pearl Harbor and White House reaction to it, the Iron Curtain speech of Winston Churchill and summit conferences of world leaders."

Memberships He belonged to the Overseas Writers Club, the National Press Club, the Alfalfa Club, and the John Carroll Society.

He also won the Washington Newspaper Guild Award for human interest and interpretive reporting.

In 1970 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Nixon as one of seven persons whom Nixon called "giants of journalism".

In 1971 he was one of 12 correspondents named charter members of the Hall of Fame established by the Washington Professional chapter of Sigma Delta Chi, the journalism society.

He kept using his old Underwood typewriter after the Post newsroom had replaced them. According to his Post obituary, Folliard "refused to observe margins or to triple space his copy," turning in "some of the 'dirtiest' copy," typed "on an ancient typewriter, long in disrepair, that he insisted on using." He also "refused to part with his antique, upright telephone" on which he had dictated his Pearl Harbor and VJ stories."