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.[1] He had friendly relations with both Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower that continued beyond those men's presidencies.
Edward T. Folliard
Edward Thomas Folliard
May 14, 1899
Washington, D.C.
October 25, 1976 (aged 77)
Journalist
The White House, national news
Helen Liston Folliard
Michael Folliard, Nancy O'Mahony
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[edit]
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.[1]
Post-retirement[edit]
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."[1]
Books[edit]
He wrote History of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick of Washington D.C., 1928-1968.[13]
Memberships[edit]
He belonged to the Overseas Writers Club, the National Press Club, the Alfalfa Club, and the John Carroll Society.[1]
At various times he served as president of the White House Correspondents' Association and of the Gridiron Club.[1]
Mona Lisa[edit]
During a 1962 conversation with French Minister of Cultural Affairs André Malraux, Folliard suggested the idea of sending the Mona Lisa to the U.S. to be exhibited temporarily at the National Gallery. Malraux liked the idea, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy made the arrangements, and Folliard accompanied the painting across the Atlantic aboard the SS France.[1]
Honors and awards[edit]
Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson honored war correspondents, including Folliard, at an event in Washington, on November 23, 1946.[14]
Folliard was awarded the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Telegraphic Reporting (National) for a series of articles published during the previous year about the Columbians, Inc., a neo-Nazi group in Atlanta.
He had been asked by Philip Graham, who by then had become the Post's publisher, to investigate the group. For the articles, Folliard spent a week in Atlanta interviewing the group's leaders, attending their mass meetings, and listening to their "tirades against Negroes, Jews, the Communists, the rich, and newspaper editors who don't share their views on 'Anglo-Saxon culture.'" The members of the group, he wrote, "dress and swagger in the manner of storm troopers," and their arm patches bore insignias reminiscent of those on SS uniforms.[12] When he won the prize, the editors of the Post wrote in an editorial: "Broadly speaking, good newspaper reporters tend to fall into one of three categories – those whose primary value lies in their ability to uncover important news; those whose value lies primarily in their skill in writing the news, and finally those who have a special aptitude for interpreting the news, that is, for discerning and clarifying the meaning that underlies the superficial facts. Mr. Folliard is one of those rare and invaluable journalists who combines in themselves all three gifts."[1]
In 1959, he won the 15th annual Raymond Clapper Memorial Award for distinguished Washington reporting during the year 1958. The award was for a story about gas bill lobby funds.[15]
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.[1]
Personal life[edit]
He was married to Helen Liston Folliard. They had a son, Michael, and a daughter, Nancy O'Mahony.[1] He was a Roman Catholic.
Jack Shafer wrote in 2014 that in 1962, Tom Wicker, then an aspiring journalist, asked Folliard "for advice on a political assignment he was working on." Folliard told him that "if you're going to be a political writer, there's one thing you'd better remember. Never let the facts get in your way."[16]
He kept using his old Underwood typewriter after the Post newsroom had replaced them.[17] 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."[1]