Globe’s Shaughnessy wins Spink Award for baseball writing

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy has won the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for meritorious contributions to baseball writing.

Shaughnessy received 185 of 417 votes from members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. The late Furman Bisher of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution got 157 votes in balloting announced Tuesday and Juan Vene, a print and broadcast reporter for more than 60 years, received 74. There was one blank ballot.

Shaughnessy is the 67th winner of the award and will be honored during the Hall of Fame’s induction weekend from July 22-25 in Cooperstown, New York.

The 62-year-old spent four years covering baseball for The Baltimore Evening Sun and The Washington Star, and has been with the Globe for 35 years. Known for the phrase “Red Sox Nation,” Shaughnessy has written 12 books, including nine on baseball.

Attribution: Associated Press

Full story: Dan Shaughnessy

Bienville revisited: Winston Groom's 'Gone the Sun' still hits close to home

After Vietnam, Groom began a career at the Washington Star. If it is nothing else, "Gone the Sun" is a tender and intimately detailed love letter to the newsroom. Gunn's journalism career starts with a fortuitous social encounter with the editor of the Washington Times-Examiner. The chapter ends thusly:

"Beau stood for a moment pondering this stroke of fortune. He must be telling the truth, Beau thought, because he remembered glancing down at T.Y. Miller's feet and noticing he was wearing brown shoes with his tuxedo. Only a newspaperman would do that."

Full article: Gone The Sun

Sandra McElwaine Interview With Winston Groom

Winston Groom may be best known as the author of ‘Forrest Gump,’ but he’s also an astute and entertaining military historian. He talks about three key figures in World War II.
Interviewing Winston Groom is not really an interview. It is a genial conversation filled with witty asides and delicious anecdotes delivered in a honeyed Southern accent by a master storyteller from his home in Point Clear, Alabama.


Celebrated for his iconic novel, Forrest Gump, the 72-year-old author, historian, and journalist talks about his 20th book, The Generals, a compelling work of nonfiction encompassing the lives of three extraordinary men: Douglas MacArthur, George Patton and George C. Marshall.

I first was interested in fiction in the great war novels of WWII, and I had the distinct honor to know those guys—James Jones who wrote From Here to Eternity, Irwin Shaw who wrote The Young Lions, Kurt Vonnegut who wrote several pieces, Joseph Heller who wrote Catch-22. They were neighbors of mine in the Hamptons, and friends.

Full article: Interview

The Art of Lily Spandorf - George Washington University Museum, Nov 21 2015 – Dec 31 2016

Lily Spandorf (1914-2000), was born in Vienna, Austria around 1910. After attending art school in Vienna, she moved to London, and traveled to Italy. While traveling in Europe, her work in watercolor and gouache met with popular acclaim.
In 1959, she moved to the United States, and showed her Italian works in New York and Washington, DC, again to critical and popular acclaim.
From 1960 to 1981, she worked for the Washington Star newspaper as a contributing artist, giving readers artistic interpretations of events such as the 1968 Democratic National Convention and White House Easter Egg Rolls.
Lily Spandorf said of her Advise and Consent drawings, "I combined the action on both sides of the camera with the setting of the U.S. Capitol and Washington. The images capture the events surrounding this unique filming–the only time the interior of the Capitol has been used as a movie set."

Spandorf's work attracted the attention of director Otto Preminger, and at his request the images were displayed at the Washington premier of Advise and Consent, at the Trans-Lux theater on 14th St., NW. When the movie was re-released in 1987, many of the drawings were again exhibited at the National Press Club.
Many of Spandorf's other works are showcased in Lily Spandorf's Washington Never More by Mark G. Griffin and Ellen M. McCloskey, which is a collection of sketches depicting Washington, DC neighborhoods and buildings. This work is particularly significant because many of the buildings illustrated in the book are no longer standing today.

Her work will be displayed at the George Washington University Museum (Nov 21 2015 – Dec 31 2016), along with her celebrated depictions of 19th-century buildings in urban DC as they faced demolition.

Source: http://www.homeanddesign.com/datebook

Where Are They Now - John Hanrahan, ExposeFacts Editorial Board

John Hanrahan is a former executive director of The Fund for Investigative Journalism and reporter for The Washington Post, The Washington Star, UPI and other news organizations. He also has extensive experience as a legal investigator. Hanrahan is the author of Government by Contract and co-author of Lost Frontier: The Marketing of Alaska. He recently worked on special assignment as a media analyst for NiemanWatchdog.org, a project of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

Source: ExposeFacts

Manhattan Institute hires John Tierney as contributing editor to City Journal

The Manhattan Institute is pleased to welcome best-selling author and columnist John Tierney as contributing editor to its quarterly publication, City Journal.

Tierney brings with him significant experience in print and media, joining City Journal after more than two decades as a reporter and columnist with the New York Times. He wrote about urban politics, economics, and culture in his column, "The Big City," which appeared in the New York Times Magazine and in the paper's Metro section, and which won the New York State Publishers Association Award. He has also written columns in the Times about national politics and science.

Prior to joining the Times, Tierney was a contributing editor to Discover and Health magazines, a staff writer at Science 81-85 magazine, a reporter for the Washington Star and the Bergen Record, and a freelance writer whose reporting took him to all seven continents. His work has been widely published, including in The Atlantic, Esquire, New York Magazine, Reader's Digest, Vogue, The Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

Full article - Tierney

Winston Groom Is Honored Guest, 29th Annual Vive le Livre Gala on Nov. 19!

The 2015 Vive le Livre is sure to be an event you won't want to miss. Featuring this year's honored guest, Winston Groom, Vive moves to a new location this year at the Jackson Center in Cummings Research Park. A reception and book signing with the author will precede a plated dinner that will be followed by remarks from the keynote speaker.

An Alabama native, Groom is currently promoting his latest book, The Generals. Those who are familiar with Groom's Forrest Gump and The Aviators know that The Generals is an exceptional work of non-fiction about the amazing men in the highest echelon of military leadership during WWII.

Full article and ticket info: Gala

The John Michael Kauffmann Estate Sale

It was an auctioneer’s delight—a longtime single-owner estate and no online buying. The estate was that of John Michael Kauffmann (1923-2014) of Yarmouth, Maine, an ardent and highly effective conservationist, philanthropist, diplomatic courier in wartime Europe, a newspaper reporter for his family-owned Washington Star, a writer for National Geographic, and co-publisher of the Bar Harbor Times.

Full Article: Estate Sale 

Anne Willan - Textbook for cooking a la French goes public

Willan has lived in the United States off and on since the 1960s and has been an American citizen since 1973. She was food editor at The Washington Star and an associate editor at Gourmet magazine — both now defunct.

Full article: Secrets From the La Varenne Kitchen

Mary McGrory: The First Queen of Journalism - New Book by John Norris

John Norris is the author of a book on Mary McGrory that is coming out September 23 with Viking. The book is already available for pre-sale on Amazon here: Mary McGrory: The First Queen of Journalism.

John is also doing a launch at the National Press Club at 6:30pm on the 23rd, which will be moderated by Dan Balz from the Post and might be of interest to the Stars alum. Advance tickets are available from the Press Club: https://www.press.org/events/npc-book-rap-john-norris-mary-mcgrory-first-queen-journalism

"... one of the great pleasures of the book was getting to know bunch of Star alumni. (I used to play poker weekly with Lance Gay before he passed away, and I still miss him.)"

The book has been getting nice reviews from the trades, some snippets of which are below.

“Mary McGrory’s life as a Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington columnist is so interesting that it’s hard to understand why there hasn’t been a book about her until now. Enter Norris . . . with this balanced, page-turning biography…Ted Kennedy proclaimed [McGrory] ‘poet laureate of American journalism,’ and this nuanced portrait provides plenty of evidence.”—Kirkus (starred review)

“Sensitive and engrossing…[this] book is a rich portrait, and will likely encourage readers to seek more of McGrory’s groundbreaking writing.”—Publishers Weekly

“Few biographies are page-turners, but Norris’s vivid account of this pioneering writer so vibrantly recalls the heady heyday of op-ed journalism that readers will avidly mourn the advent of the 24/7 cable and talk radio punditry that took its place.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Norris portrays a talented and complex woman . . . Those interested in recent political history will relish the fascinating insider details.”—Library Journal

Submission Period For Fall Newsletter Is Now Underway

FYI - I will be publishing the Fall Newsletter the weekend of September 19th. If anyone has a book signing, new book by alumni, personal update, blog post, gossip, etc., you should get that information to me.

I also encourage any member who has not chimed in to tell us how you're doing, what you're up to, how was your summer, or any plans for the future.

Any new group members who wish to be added to the mailserv list must email me at: washingtonstar.ning@gmail.com from the email you wish to receive the newsletter at.

Star Reunion Fund Closed Out, Put To Good Use

Joan Anderson sent a contribution to Send a Kid to Camp with the balance remaining in the Star Reunion Fund. Steve Aug wanted to close it out. Sandra McElwaine suggested Kid to Camp. The alumni who met Friday at Mr. Henry's agreed. I hope I didn't lay it on too thick in my accompanying letter, which ended with: "So, enclosed is a check for $1,999.73 in memory of our dear departed Washington Star, founder of the Send a Kid to Camp Campaign, positive force in the Washington community, and launching pad for many a fine journalist."

Why They Fought - For more reasons than you might think, Winston Groom, The Weekly Standard 2013

With all the insane flare-up over the Confederate Flag, I thought it best to re-read a book review by our old newspaper colleague, Winston Groom from 2013, "A Disease in the Public Mind - A New Understanding of Why We Fought the Civil War", by Thomas Fleming.
I would highly recommend reading Winston's review for a lot of insight into why the Civil War has for so long caused people to want to start it up again.


 Click to read> Why They Fought 

Newspaper family gives Willamette $1M to build nonprofit studies

George and Colleen Hoyt gave Willamette's MBA program $1 million in hopes of providing scholarships to students looking to take nonprofit management courses from the Atkinson Graduate School of Management.

George Hoyt is a former newspaper publisher who graduated from Willamette in 1958. He's spent time with the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Washington Star and Lesher Communications. Colleen Hoyt spent years in the newspaper and advertising fields.


Full article: Willamette

White House Correspondents Association Charter Returns

This afternoon, a rescued bit of American history is being restored -- at least as best it can be -- in a White House ceremony.

According to George E. Condon Jr., the unofficial historian of the White House Correspondents’ Association, the only piece of property ever “owned” by the WHCA was the large, handsomely framed original charter. But it was lost.

The document began simply enough: “This organization shall be known as the White House Correspondents’ Association. Its primary object shall be the promotion of the interests of those reporters and correspondents assigned to cover the White House.”

What followed were various organizational bylaws, along with the names of the group’s charter members, eight men (this was 1914, after all) representing The Washington Star, the Washington Times, the Cincinnati Times-Star, the three existing wire services, and two papers named The Sun -- one in Baltimore, the other in New York.

Attribution: Carl M. Cannon, Realclearpolitics.com 
Full Story: WHCA

‘Forrest Gump’ author’s former Old Town colonial is up for grabs at $1.2 million

The real estate market is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re gonna get.  Right now, there’s the chance to own the former Alexandria abode of Winston Groom, the author who penned the 1986 novel “Forrest Gump.”

The spacious colonial, where it’s believed the D.C. native composed the best-seller in the downstairs office, hit the market Thursday for $1,195,000.

The former Washington Star reporter lived there with his first wife, Ruth Noble, who took ownership of the property in 1977 after their 1974 divorce, listing agent Sue Goodhart of McEnearney Associates Inc. told us. The current owner, she said is “downsizing.”

Full story: Alexandria Colonial

UPDATE - Rachel Shuster

Rachel Shuster, former sportswriter, national sports columnist and for the last 20 years a sports editor, is joining her colleagues in taking a buyout from USA TODAY. She is not retiring, however, and welcomes all inquiries.

Read story: USA TODAY offers buyouts to veteran staffers

UPDATE - Susan Ades Stone

Susan Ades Stone is an award-winning journalist who has a Zelig-like way of landing at startups in their earliest days, among them CNN, the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, The World Science Festival and now, Executive Director and Campaign Strategist for "Women On 20s".

She began her career as a print reporter at the Washington Star. Later, at CNN, she produced the first weekly live-by-satellite interview program, blazing the trail for programs like Nightline. Covering medicine, science and the environment for MacNeil/Lehrer, she reported on the discovery of the AIDS virus, "acid rain," the nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl, among dozens of other national stories. She is the recipient of a 1984 George Polk Award for a short documentary on the efforts of a guerilla anti-abortion group that inspired a spate of clinic bombings and she was nominated for Emmy and Cable Ace awards, among other honors.

Amidst it all, she and her husband Jeff raised three children who can't wait to cast the first votes at Women on 20s.

Attribution: http://www.womenon20s.org/bios

Former NBC News Reporter Lisa Myers: Television Journalism Is Deteriorating

Lisa Myers, an NBC News veteran who retired in 2014, is scheduled to give a speech in Des Moines about her career in television. And her diagnosis of the industry as it currently stands is, shall we say, unflattering.

“I am going to talk about the deterioration in the quality of journalism you see on TV,” she told the Des Moines Register. “There is less and less interest in network television today holding the White House or any other part of government accountable. I fear there is a calculation that the audiences they are trying to reach don’t care that much about the serious news. I think most of the political coverage these days has all the depth of Twitter.”

Full article: TV News Deteriorating
h/t Tim O'Leary

Smooth golf writer helps lift Low Country out of the sand trap

Charles Price, who is one of seven personalities being inducted into the Golf Hall of fame, could write as well as his friend Bobby Jones could swing the golf club. As soon as he solda story for $1,000 to The Saturday Evening Post, he quit his job at the Washington Star and climbed into the high-wire act of freelance writing.

Full story> Golf Hall Of Fame Inductee

Attribution: DAVID LAUDERDALE, islandpacket.com

FYI - Some New Alumni Members

We've gotten some unexpected new alumni on our Facebook group - Relatives of I.William Hill and Newbold Noyes:

Joyce Hill Stoner and her sister, Roxane Hill Hughes who adds "Besides being Bill Hill's elder daughter, I worked in the Women's Dept when Lee Walsh was Women's Editor, with Ann Cline, Vi Faulkner, Isabelle Shelton, Amy Young, Daisy Cleland, Ruth Dean, Frances Lide, Pat Simmons and Eleni. Also, as a kid, went to lots of Senators games with Jerry O'Leary and Miriam Ottenberg! Fifi Gorska was my aunt. In the days of Mohammed A. Rauf, Jr., too. What a wonderful newsroom gang, not to mention the photo desk guys (and Rosemary)!"

Newbold's son Newbold "Terry" Noyes (who is is working on his fathers Star archives and memorabilia), and ex Daphne B Noyes. Donna Epstein had previously added Lelia Sinclair Dickey Baldassari whose grandmother, Lelia Sinclair Gordon Noyes, was married to Newbold.

Former Washington Star Retail Sales Rep. Keith Flinn appointed Herald’s new publisher

Photo by Marie Dirle/New Jersey Herald

NEWTON — Nearly a year after its publisher retired, the New Jersey Herald has filled the position from within.

Keith Flinn, the daily newspaper's director of advertising and marketing for the last three years, was named publisher by Ron Wallace, vice president of newspapers at Quincy Newspapers Inc., parent company of the Herald, last week.

“This is the culmination and probably the highlight of my career,” Flinn said. “I've always had a vision of someday running a paper, and I wanted to do it in a small community where it is the lifeblood of the community. I certainly think the New Jersey Herald is that to the people of the county.”

Flinn joined the Herald in November 2011 as director of advertising and marketing. Prior to that he was senior vice president of sales at Newspapers First, a sales and marketing company representing the nation's top 40 newspapers. He was also a senior advertising executive at the Los Angeles Times in national advertising and started his career as a retail sales representative at the Washington Star.

Flinn said that working in newspapers is in his blood, as his father worked for Newsday on Long Island for 36 years, and he himself spent many a day in the pressroom and delivered papers too.

Full story: Keith Flinn

Attribution: JOE CARLSON, New Jersey Herald

Lois Romano Rejoining the Post As Editor of WaPo Live

The Washington Post announced that Lois Romano will be leaving Politico to rejoin their staff as editor of Washington Post Live (Twitter).

“Lois rejoins The Post with enormous enthusiasm and a bounty of ideas,” said executive editor, Martin Baron, in the announcement. ”Above all, she understands that our growing events business is an extension of our journalism. That means you’ll find her reaching out to everyone in the newsroom, seeking your help, advice, and participation.”

Romano starts with the Post on Feb. 2 and will report directly to Baron, while working closely with Bob Bierman, general manager of Washington Post Live, Steve Hills and Fred Ryan.

Twitter: @LoisRomano

Full story: Lois Romano, editor of Washington Post Live

Attribution: Damon Marx, MediaBistro