McGrory, Mary

▪ 2005

      American journalist (b. Aug. 22, 1918, Boston, Mass.—d. April 21, 2004, Washington, D.C.), broke ground as a female newspaper political columnist and enjoyed a more than 50-year-career. Her gift for lucid yet poetic writing combined with her love of the art of reporting won her the respect and affection of her colleagues and several generations of newspaper readers. McGrory, who throughout her career took pride in her Boston Irish heritage, began her journalism career as a book reviewer at the Boston Herald, moving to the Washington Star in 1947. She was promoted to reporter in 1954 and did her first extended reporting on the hearings in which the army accused Sen. Joseph McCarthy of interfering with military operations in his search for communists. In 1960 her column went into national syndication, and in 1975 she won a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting of the Watergate hearings. She moved to the Washington Post in 1981 after the Star went out of business. An eloquent liberal voice, McGrory made the infamous “enemies list” of Pres. Richard M. Nixon. She continued writing a column for the Post until early 2003, when a stroke curtailed her career.

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