In Memoriam

Mary Lou Forbes, a Pulitzer-winning, groundbreaking journalist, has died after a brief battle with cancer. Mary Lou is credited with paving the way for many women to rise in the previously male-dominated journalism profession and she was a mentor to such greats as Carl Bernstein and Cal Thomas.

For the last 25 years, she has served as the Commentary Editor for The Washington Times. Her obit here.

A gathering will be held this Saturday, May 30, to celebrate the life and career of WSJ's John Wilke. All are welcome. The service will be a music-filled fundraiser with all proceeds contributed to the education of John and Nancy's two children, Robin and Jackson. It will take place at the American Legion Hall Post #8, 224 D Street S.E., in Washington, D.C.

The event will begin at 7pm and music starts at 8pm. There will be a cash bar and a requested minimum donation of $50 per person. Limited edition Wilke T-shirts can be purchased for $50. Additional information on contributing can be found here.

The WSJ's John R. Wilke died of cancer Friday afternoon at his home in Bethesda. Wilke was 54.

The Journal's article here.

TV Newser reports Irving R. Levine, the longtime correspondent for NBC News died yesterday.

Levine reported for NBC News for 35 years - first as a foreign correspondent then in 1971 becoming NBC's economics correspondent based in Washington. Irving R. Levine was 86.

Reese Cleghorn (78), dean of the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism from 1981 to 2000 has passed.

The longest sitting dean on the University of Maryland campus when he stepped down, Cleghorn was associate editor of the Detroit Free Press when he was named to the journalism position.

Cleghorn was instrumental in bringing the national monthly magazine American Journalism Review (then Washington Journalism Review) to the college in 1987, and and has since served as president, and then publisher of AJR.

For more information on Cleghorn and memorial services, visit UMD's site here.

Readers have brought this to our attention today. From DCRTV:

Jack Eden, who, for two decades, provided gardening tips and hosted "Garden Of Eden" on WTOP radio, died on 1/17. Eden also wrote a gardening column for the Washington Post and the Washington Times. His gardening reports were heard on radio stations across the country. Also, Eden hosted a TV program on gardening in the 1990s. Since 2000, he'd taught consumer horticulture at the College Of William And Mary in Williamsburg. More soon...

From the Washington Times:

Bart McDowell, an award-winning writer and senior editor at National Geographic magazine in Washington for 32 years, died Jan. 17 at his home in Forest Heights, Md. He was 85.

Born Hobart K. McDowell Jr., in San Antonio, Mr. McDowell is remembered by friends and relatives as urbane, gracious and witty. In the course of writing five books and nearly three dozen articles during his career at the magazine, he met President Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird; Pope John Paul II; the kings of Thailand and Tonga; and Spain's Generalissimo Francisco Franco.

From the AP:

Norman Oliver Walker, a journalist for The Associated Press for more than 30 years in Louisiana and Washington, D.C., died Sunday. He was 96.

Walker died at his Arlington home. His daughter, Andree Walker Lanser, said the cause of death had not been determined.

Walker began his career with the AP in 1934 in New Orleans, where he helped cover the assassination of Huey Long. Walker later served as Baton Rouge correspondent and moved to the AP's Washington bureau in 1943.

From the Washington Post's obit:

Sarah Booth Conroy, 81, who chronicled the homes, history and changing personalities of the Washington elite as a Washington Post reporter, editor and columnist for more than three decades, died Jan. 12 at ManorCare Potomac nursing facility. She had Alzheimer's disease.

Mrs. Conroy, who wrote more than 2,800 articles for The Post, was known for her adept reporting on the city's diplomatic circuit and for her long-running "Chronicles" column about the city's history.

She was also considered a one-of-a-kind newsroom character who wore elaborately sculpted jewelry designed by her husband and whose honey-dipped Southern accent seemed to grow deeper with each decade that she lived outside her native Georgia.

From the Washington Post:

Robert Poos, 78, who covered the Vietnam War as a reporter for the Associated Press and later was managing editor of Soldier of Fortune magazine, died Dec. 15 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at Mount Vernon Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Alexandria.

Mr. Poos was a Marine during the Korean War and joined the AP in 1957. Assigned to the AP's Saigon, South Vietnam, bureau in 1965, he quickly became noted for aggressive and daring combat reporting.