President George H. W. Bush dubbed Katharine Graham “the beloved first lady of Washington and American journalism.”
Graham was legendary for running The Washington Post during its 1970s heyday, when its coverage of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate scandal sent shockwaves through the nation. Its Watergate coverage is credited with pushing President Nixon to resign.
Graham’s father, Eugene Meyer, had acquired the Post in 1933, and turned the reins over to her husband, Philip Graham, in 1946. But when Philip ended his life in 1963, Katherine took control of the company, an eventuality she said flooded her with self-doubt, something she would refer to as “female baggage.”
She needn’t have worried.
Despite the challenges of being a lone woman in a male-dominated industry, Graham asserted herself and made bold decisions. She chose the hard-charging Ben Bradlee as the paper’s top editor; she approved the decision to publish the Pentagon Papers despite legal threats; and she backed up Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s deep background approach to covering Watergate.
Under her leadership, the Post’s journalism became indispensable, and its circulation soared. Warren Buffett became a major shareholder. Graham, who over time took the titles of publisher and chief executive, became the first woman to head a Fortune 500 company.
Graham, who started her career as a journalist, showed she was also a talented writer. She won a Pulitzer for her 1998 autobiography, “Personal History.”
— Niv Elis
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