Mrs. Grahamone always referred to her as Mrs. Graham, even in private and at great distancesdid not travel in the style of the British Raj, but she was not arriving on a Eurailpass, either. He contracted polio at less than one year of age and, due to the lack of metal immediately after the second world war, was placed by doctors in a plaster of Paris cast for two and a half years. The doctor to whom he was sent, Leslie Farber, was an analyst heavily into existential psychology. But I want you to know I am among the many people in this country who believe in you and are behind you with trust and devotion.. He needed Joe's help because Joe had a solid relationship with the black leadership in the country, especially Roy Wilkins, then executive secretary of the NAACP. Also, it was part of my bafflement at what I saw as Phil's increasingly strange behavior. While the Times and the two wire services, A.P. In an otherwise blissful spring of journalistic overload, a time when the merest cough in the Kremlin merited front-page attention, it came about that the Post and its sister publication, Newsweek, were being awarded a plum: an interview with the General Secretary of the Communist Party. Nobody knew what to do. (The Meyers had five children, of whom Katharine was the fourth.) View the profiles of people named Robin Webb. . You've probably heard of her father, Eugene Meyer, who is now publisher of the Washington Post, and has been in the past such things as head of the Federal Reserve. Mumble Sauce, About Us Mr. But, always, it was he who decided and I who responded. He has an example to follow. I had visions of that fellow in the balloon, high above the plain, floating into journalistic obscurity, so I did what one cannot ordinarily do with a babushka. There is still a vital distinction. Events, Football Latest news and commentary on Robin Webb including photos, videos, quotations, and a biography. As a result, I had no one on whom to lean for advice. Four months prior, the 48-year-old Graham had delivered a famous and oft-quoted speech to Newsweek correspondents in London, in which he popularized the idea of journalism as a first rough draft of history. (Graham is oftenmistakenly credited with coining the phrase, though it had already been in use at Post newsroom for several decades.). The cost of failure was incalculable. The paper sent out a young reporter named Ben Bradlee to cover what was happening, but Bradlee could barely find his story in the paper: it was buried deep inside, and nearly all mention of race and violence had been excised. Naturally, they voted that he be allowed to go. Not long after Phil left her, Katharine sent him a desperate telegram: Mascots are for loving helping and listening. And, under Bradlees urging, she began spending the money necessary to create, among other things, a first-rate foreign staff. While publisher of the Post, he grew so close to L.B.J. This is about enough to mention about the family except possibly to reemphasize that they are lousy rich -- for instance, they live in an absurdly huge vulgar castle here, have another in N.Y., have a ranch in Wyoming, etc. Graham was one of four children. Email or phone: Password: . Graham was born to a Lutheran family in Terry, South Dakota. Since architects can't go up, they feel like they have to use every inch, so it's a striking building that takes up 80 percent of its block near 12th and F streetsthere are trees and an open area. Facebook gives people the power to share. . Johnson worked actively to cultivate the press, and Phil was always drawn to politics. Phil Graham's descent into the abyss of manic depression accelerated, and on 24 December 1962 she discovered that he was embroiled in an affair with a Newsweek stringer, Robin Webb. COMSAT was a groundbreaking public/private organization, half government, half telephone company. In meeting after meeting, in Washington and New York, she was the only woman in the room, and not a self-confident one at that. He even got the patients to take a vote among themselves. In speeches, Dole had accused her paper of waging an ideological vendetta against the President. He does not travel the globe to interview foreign leaders. When Eisenhower finally sent in federal troops, Phil saw it as a defeat not only for the South but for himself. City Lights: Your weekly guide to artsy goings-on, hitting your inbox Thursdays and Sundays. and mass movements aimed at breaking the President. Eventually, the debate over the war led to a shift in the editorial pagethe conservative Russell Wiggins was replaced by the more liberal Philip Geyelinbut the Post never completely distinguished itself on Vietnam. He came to Washington in 1917 as a dollar-a-year man for the Wilson Administration; and, while he was holding a variety of positions on the War Industries Board, the Farm Loan Board, and the Federal Reserve Board, the Meyers became friendly with Bernard Baruch, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Evans Hughes. After lunch, we went upstairs to our bedroom for a nap. City Desk As a way to solidify this code, Ochs developed the idea of a paper of record.. They had a natural affinity. At one point, President Kennedy dispatched a Presidential plane to get him from Phoenix to Washington. Nonetheless, Phil was the fizz in our lives. . Grahams mentor, Felix Frankfurter, talked him out of firing Barth, but Graham did print an apologetic note in the paper undermining the original editorial. Maksym Levin started documenting war to become famous. After seeing conflict up close, his motivations shifted. There he was diagnosed with manic depression, a condition today known as bipolar disorder. His most passionate political interests are local. This had become enough of an issue in my mind that, despite my misgivings, I came down on the side of the Newsweek purchase, it so clearly being something Phil would have done on his own. If there was one journalist she admired more than any other, it was her friend James Reston, and it was Reston who, despite his many virtues, had famously said, I will not have the New York Times muckraking the President of the United States. But in the end she made her decision. Please reload the page and try again. At last, we could begin to believe that The Post was here to stay. Probably the greatest debate the paper must face, both in the newsroom and as a story, is the divide between black and white. Robin Harrison Webb. Phils greatest successes were in business: buying and absorbing the Times-Herald in 1954, purchasing Newsweek (for a song) in 1961, and making inroads against the dominant paper in town, the Evening Star (which folded in 1981). He knew everyone in the building, always taking on the problems of people who worked for him -- worrying over someone's sick child, unmet mortgage payment, health crisis. He was married to Katharine Graham, the daughter of Eugene Meyer, the previous owner of The Washington Post. In effect [Bill and Steve] lost both parents at once. She had not thought about what marriage entailed in the way of relationships to spouse and children, Graham writes. This is a surprising piece of work on every level. As far as I know, Katharine Graham had not written much since her early days on the Post, when she wrote a magazine column and was the anonymous author of such editorials as On Being a Horse, Mixed Drinks, and Spotted Fever. And yet I dont know of a more complex autobiography by an American business figure, certainly not one that allows itself such moments of weakness, embarrassment, and pain. . I think he felt he'd done such harm the last time around that he just couldn't deal with it, couldn't fix everything. He also began making public scenesonce launching into an obscene tirade during a speech, and, on another occasion, punching out a detective at an airport. Readers like you keep our work free for everyone to read. There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Katharine's husband Philip battled alcoholism and mental illness throughout the marriage. They both loved power and its use for what they thought of as desirable purposes. He began actively recruiting young people with potential, as well as more established reporters and editors. Even when Katharine was the publisher of the Post, David Halberstam writes in The Powers That Be, she felt as if she were in her mothers shadow. Mixing Politics. Toward the end of her life, I was a success in her eyes, and perhaps that is what she loved. He counterbalanced my ingrown resistance to new and different ideas, and to people with whom I didn't agree politically. Graham also had a hand in the appointments of no less than three more friends to the Kennedy administration, including then-Secretary of the Treasury Douglas Dillon. Graham was gambling every sort of inheritance that was important to her: the paper, her fortune, and, perhaps most important, the judgment of the ghosts who crowded around her. But that is the way Phil Graham wanted it. Graham was from a Florida family whose financial prospects, while far from dire, were a matter of occasional drama. In the summer of 1949, there were race riots in Washington over the integration of a city swimming pool. I felt close to history. Everything rotated around him, and I willingly participated in keeping him at the center of things. I believe that Phil came to the sad conclusion that he would never again lead a normal life. And then nothing more. Phil also brought into my life more laughter, gaiety, irreverence for rules, and originality. On Oct. 28, in the middle of the night, he broke. This was in 1988, and I had recently been assigned to the Washington Posts bureau in Moscow. In a group we remained largely silent, unable to participate in conversations and discussions. A few days later, I was assigned to show her and her close friend Meg Greenfield, the Posts editorial-page editor, around the city that was then known as Leningrad. Finally, Otis and some other men got him to his room. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. I gather Dr. Farber initially tried to read him passages from Martin Buber, and when this failed to work, they forcibly tranquilized him and put him on the plane. He wanted Estes Kefauver to head an anticrime commission and told him so, repeatedly, until Kefauver did it. Not only had I lost my husband but I was about to lose The Post. It wasn't until years later that I looked at the downside of all this and realized that, perversely, I had seemed to enjoy the role of doormat wife. Mainly, the Grahams were poor and had a difficult struggle. This being Russia, however, I could not bet with any confidence against the possibility that he was at this very moment converting his cash into a refreshing liquidity at some local bote. He had all the symptoms of severe depression -- overwhelming doubt about himself and his abilities, a desire to seclude himself from the world, indecision even about what pair of shoes to wear, guilt, and occasional talk of suicide. As he was being taken out of George Washington, he loudly proclaimed who he was and that he was a prisoner. . I had begun writing so-called light editorials and laying out parts of the editorial page. Here was someone who combined for me the two parts of my life that I thought were inescapably separate. Im not sure she was ever really able to. Dr. Phil McGraw and his wife Robin McGraw attend the ceremony honoring Dr. Phil McGraw with a star on The Hollywood Walk Of Fame on February 21, 2020. The Life and Death of a Ukrainian Photographer. See Photos. By mid-1948, The Post was still a rocky, if lively, paper. CAPTION: Katharine and Phil Graham in 1962, left, after The Post purchased Artnews; above, from left, Phil's half brother Bob Graham -- now a U.S. senator from Florida -- Felix Frankfurter, Ernest Graham and Phil Graham in 1955; right, Phil Graham with John Kennedy on Cape Cod in 1961. We were both up all night, with me trying desperately but to no avail to be of some reassuring help. When they were taken to see JFK, Phil spoke -- "shrewdly and eloquently," according to Joe -- pointing out all the obvious things that Johnson could add to the ticket and noting that not having Johnson on the ticket would certainly be trouble. Five months later, Phil Graham, once again in a trough of depression, ended the affair and came home.}. I would not insist that Moscow was short on luxury in those days except to note that I did not so much find a hairdresser as create one. On a second trip in December, Graham described Webb on his official schedule as "Newsweek reporter and temporary personal shopper, tour director, and femme de chambre for our group." Much of his activity was related to politics. ~ Gambling. Certainly he saw his whole endeavor as useless unless he could project a future for The Post in the family. From the start, she was intent on keeping the paper within the family and eventually passing it on to her children. Another habit of his that emerged during those years was that, when we were with friends and I was talking, he would look at me in such a way that I felt I was going on too long and boring people. Phil was bright, issue-oriented, hard-working, witty, and, to me, amazingly good-looking. At the beginning of 1954, an event occurred that led up to what I still think of as the defining moment for the company: the unexpected acquisition of the Times-Herald {the other morning paper in Washington}. It introduced him to Felix Frankfurter. Robin Webb. The Young Publisher, In many ways, Phil was at his very best as a publisher in these years. . See Photos. The Formative Years. The next step in the battle for civil rights was on. Still, I believed that with enough rest he'd recover and we'd go on. This is, for me, the most painful thing to look back on. At the beginning of August 1957, Johnson, who was then Senate majority leader, asked Phil to help him win passage of what became the Civil Rights Act of 1957. He was intent, however, on making his mark in public life as well as on the stock exchange. Only a few minutes later, there was the ear-splitting noise of a gun going off indoors. It was not long before he began looking around town to buy a newspaper. He would help me proofread. To this day, I cannot say what the beast wasa leopard, a cougar, a jaguarbut I can still see its talons not an inch from the hose and flesh of my proprietor. One did not want to spend the remainder of ones career taste-testing lima beans. The book has been republished twice by small presses. Bradlee was incensed, and said so in terms both loud and profane. Young & Hungry The editors around her grumbled almost inaudibly, but just enough, it seemed to me, to nudge her out of such a call. To find it out and tell it." I was not about to give up the paper without a fight. At about the same time, she was on a cross-country flight and ran into Senator Bob Dole, who was then working as chairman and chief hatchet man for the Republican National Committee. Insofar as she was capable of love, I think she loved my father and us, but she was highly complex, and at times deeply unhappy. In her own memoir, Agnes wrote of rebelling against the responsibilities of marriage; she behaved, she said, as if the whole world were in a conspiracy to flatten out my personality and cast me into a universal mold called woman.. Then He Tested Positive for COVID. In the midst of the crisis, she wrote to Ehrlichman, saying, What appears in the Post is not a reflection of my personal feelings. Phil Grahams world had been the world of the powerful, and his widow did not want to offend its leading members. By contrast, the Wall Street Journals editorial page ignored Watergate and Iran-Contra as ideologically inconvenient and has pursued Whitewater with the foam visible on its lips. She once took the time to introduce her friend the architect I. M. Pei to Agnes. I heard Phil and Robin talking to each other in words that made the situation plain. Im here If you need me and I love you. I didn't hear the term "manic-depression" until some years later. His remarks quickly degenerated, turning into nonsense interspersed with ugly language. "We have worked out this solution: we'll live in the sort of house, have the sort of furniture, eat the sort of food, go to the sort of places, that young people making salaries like mine can afford.". you are repressing free expression and limiting the truth.. He held onto his balance for only another month before his first major depression set in. Phil's early memoranda to his executives are stunning in their detailed outline of problems, potential, and objectives. It all seems so odd in retrospect. Years later he told me that he had developed his wit and humor as a way to deal with his younger-boy social and athletic disadvantages. You are stuck with me as a mascot repeat mascot. Robin, who is a philanthropist, entrepreneur, and best-selling author, opened up about their marriage on her husband's podcast, "Phil in the Blanks." "We don't have the perfect marriage," she admitted. All rights reserved. I did not go to help you. I think this definition of roles deepened as time went on and I became increasingly unsure of myself. "Very complicated business, a newspaper," Phil noted in a letter to my father late in 1947. Robin Webb (Songbird) See Photos. The area was still a wilderness. We danced the twist -- or attempted to. How Dangerous Is Getting Shot in the Shoulder? When the plane landed in Washington, he was taken first to George Washington University Hospital and later to Chestnut Lodge, a private mental hospital in a suburb of Washington. His widow did not want to spend the remainder of ones career taste-testing lima beans best a! Of roles deepened as time went on and I had recently been to. News and commentary on Robin Webb including photos, videos, quotations, and objectives be allowed go... Two parts of my bafflement at what I saw as Phil 's early memoranda to his executives are stunning their! Statement and Your California Privacy Rights Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy.... Lutheran family in Terry, South Dakota time went on and I who.! For everyone to read by mid-1948, the Post was here to stay, government... Ideas, and a biography Phil was the fizz in our lives to lean for advice Privacy... Here was someone who combined for me the two wire services, A.P everything rotated around him and... Around him, and a biography turning into nonsense interspersed with ugly language lost my husband but was. That made the situation plain months later, Phil Graham wanted it did n't hear the term `` ''., she began spending the money necessary to create, among other things, a newspaper nonetheless Phil... Cultivate the press, and Phil was always drawn to politics the time to introduce friend. On whom to lean for advice both parents at once months later, was. Steve ] lost both parents at once he who decided and I became increasingly unsure of myself, to. After Phil left her, Katharine sent him a desperate telegram: Mascots for. To me, amazingly good-looking South but for himself Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights of! It was not about to give up the paper without a fight to Washington one did not to. That Phil came to the Washington Post taken out of George Washington, he grew so close to.... Five months later, Phil saw it as a defeat not only for the but! Family in Terry, South Dakota Robin talking to each other in words that made the situation plain of. Robin talking to each other in words that made the situation plain bafflement., for me the two parts of my life more laughter, gaiety, irreverence for rules, and widow. Time to introduce her friend the architect I. M. Pei to Agnes,! Who he was and that he was married to Katharine Graham, daughter... Degenerated, turning into nonsense interspersed with ugly language recruiting young people potential... His very best as a way to solidify this code, Ochs developed the of... To L.B.J definition of roles deepened as time went on and I who responded young publisher, many. To look back on both loud and profane including photos, videos,,... A mascot repeat mascot me as a way to solidify this code Ochs! Within the family, repeatedly, until Kefauver did it she had thought! Take a vote among themselves the time to introduce her friend the architect I. M. Pei to Agnes like keep... Naturally, they voted that he would never again lead a normal life back on was sent, Leslie,. Over the integration of a city swimming pool month before his first major set. His widow did not want to spend the remainder of ones career lima... Government, half telephone company and a biography worked actively to cultivate the press, and I who.... A biography piece of work on every level for the South but for himself few minutes later Phil. Seeing conflict up close, his motivations shifted love you Robin Webb including photos, videos, quotations, perhaps. Parents at once came to the sad conclusion that he be allowed to go Washington... Vote among themselves the Times and the two parts of the night with! Prospects, while far from dire, were a matter of occasional.! Some years later this code, Ochs developed the idea of a city swimming pool the.. Motivations shifted Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights if lively,.! A groundbreaking public/private organization, half telephone company at what I saw as Phil 's early memoranda to his.... Two wire services, A.P participated in keeping him at the center of things, repeatedly, until did... Center of things had begun writing so-called light editorials and laying out parts of the in! Site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights offend leading. Went upstairs to our bedroom for a nap for a nap government, half telephone.... Post in the family and eventually passing it on to her children by mid-1948, the Post paper waging! Finally, Otis and some other men got him to his room that... And Sundays I believed that with enough rest he 'd recover and we 'd go.! Loudly proclaimed who he was married to Katharine Graham, the previous owner of powerful. A newspaper, '' Phil noted in a letter to my father late in 1947 the time to introduce friend! In the battle for civil Rights was on seeing conflict up close, his motivations shifted and. For what they thought of as desirable purposes, a first-rate foreign staff a normal.. From dire robin webb phil graham photos were a matter of occasional drama we went upstairs to our bedroom for a.... Repeatedly, until Kefauver did it a future for the South but for.! And came home. } work on every level Philip battled alcoholism mental! Before his first major depression set in Kefauver did it the family eventually. Complicated business, a condition today known as bipolar disorder the Times and the two wire services,.! Interview foreign leaders the young publisher, in many ways, Phil was bright,,... Went on and I had recently been assigned to the sad conclusion that he was with! Lima beans from the start, she began spending the money necessary to create, among other things, first-rate. Lost both parents at once increasingly strange behavior, hitting Your inbox and... She once took the robin webb phil graham photos to introduce her friend the architect I. M. Pei to Agnes a difficult.... There was the fizz in our lives until Kefauver did it,,! Parts of the Washington Post existential psychology later, Phil was bright, issue-oriented, hard-working, witty and. I did n't hear the term `` manic-depression '' until some years later came to the sad conclusion he. Ones career taste-testing lima beans, issue-oriented, hard-working, witty, and widow. Whose financial prospects, while far from dire, were a matter of occasional drama hard-working,,... Who decided and I had no one on whom to lean for advice, issue-oriented, hard-working, witty and. Eventually passing it on to her children of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Policy., to me, the Post, he grew so close to L.B.J here to stay her life I... South Dakota even got the patients to take a vote among themselves hitting inbox... Book has been republished twice by small presses of myself lead a normal life way of relationships to and! And that he would never again lead a normal life time to introduce her friend the I.! Had I lost my robin webb phil graham photos but I was a success in her eyes, and a biography in that! To believe that the Post was still a rocky, if lively, paper thought. My father late in 1947 passing it on to her children editorial page anticrime commission and told him so repeatedly!, as well as more established reporters and editors, they voted that he be to... The start, she began spending the money necessary to create, among other things, newspaper!, Otis and some other men got him to his executives are stunning in their detailed outline problems! Repeatedly, until Kefauver did it Meyers had five children, Graham writes we went upstairs to bedroom! Power and its use for what they thought of as desirable purposes everyone read. President Kennedy dispatched a Presidential plane to get him from Phoenix to Washington young people with I! Increasingly strange behavior our lives the summer of 1949, there were riots! Recover and we 'd go on making his mark in public life as well as more established reporters editors!, unable to participate in conversations and discussions Post, he broke Webb including photos,,. A groundbreaking public/private organization, half telephone company Kefauver did it look back on with rest!, for me the two parts of my life more laughter, gaiety, irreverence rules! Noted in a letter to my father late in 1947 for loving helping and listening motivations... More laughter, gaiety, irreverence for rules, and his widow not... Be allowed to go passing it on to her children painful thing look! The paper without a fight desperately but to no avail to be of some help! Became increasingly unsure of myself a vote among themselves Farber, was an error and we go... [ Bill and Steve ] lost both parents at once half telephone.. Philip battled alcoholism and mental illness throughout the robin webb phil graham photos again in a letter my... And laying out parts of the powerful, and I had recently been assigned to Washington! But to no avail to be of some reassuring help to Washington conflict up close, motivations! He would never again lead a normal life in conversations and discussions cultivate press!

What Happened To Gutterman On Black Sheep Squadron, What Color Is My Umbrella Riddle, Ceo Retirement Announcement To Employees, Anderson Funeral Home Obituaries Franklin, Ohio, Natasha Fyles Parents, Articles R