JAWS Tributes to Fran Lewine
JAWS members remember Fran
As named plaintiffs in some of the groundbreaking class action lawsuits against the media, we’d like to salute the contributions of Fran Lewine, one of seven women who brought a federal lawsuit against The Associated Press.
Here are some of our reasons:
- to be a named plaintiff, you had to be a standup kid. You had to recognize the inequities that occurred, that affected you and other women (and minorities, in the AP lawsuit) at your workplace. And you had to want to do something about them.
- You had to put your name on the line, to speak out publically, on behalf not just of your own case but on behalf of others. This rarely was a natural thing to do, for news people used to reporting rather than making news.
- It carried considerable peril to your career. Employers weren’t grateful to be sued, to be accused of violating the nation’s civil rights laws by their unequal treatment of women and men, blacks and whites. We lived we lived with the risks and believed it was worth personal sacrifice for the greater good.
- Being joined by the "superstars" gives the rest of us courage and the kind of support that can be understood only by beginners and behind-the-scenes folks who have stood shoulder to shoulder with those who made it to the top of the hill and then reached back to pull us up. Fran was our star.
- Most of us became adept at reinventing ourselves and have gone on to find new challenges.
Fran, for instance, never had another high-glitz job like the one she left at the AP, covering the White House. But after a few years as a press person at a federal agency, she offered her newshound talents, and her formidable contacts in Washington, to CNN. She never was a celebrity – nor, apparently, did she want to be – but she was an invaluable part of the innards of a major news organization until she died.
For all of that, we say thanks.
-- Shirley Christian, Plaintiff, class action lawsuit against The Associated Press
-- Virginia Pitt Sherlock, Plaintiff, class action lawsuit against The Associated Press
-- Peggy Simpson, Plaintiff, class action lawsuit against The Associated Press
-- Rachelle Cohen, Plaintiff, class action lawsuit against The Associated Press
-- Betsy Wade, Plaintiff, class action lawsuit against The New York Times
-- Lynn Povich, Plaintiff, class action lawsuit against Newsweek
I am truly overwhelmed today by the outpouring of tributes to my dear friend, Fran Lewine, especially those on the JAWS website which are filled with so much love and respect for this great lady. I know that Fran, with her usual humility, would be stunned at the depth of devotion she inspired.
For me, this is a loss beyond words. She was my mentor, sister, friend and colleague for 40 years. I first worked with Fran when she was covering the Western White House at San Clemente in the 1960s and I was a cub reporter helping out the AP staff. She took me under her wing and showed me the ropes and we became friends. Fran was also very close to Theo Wilson with whom she had traveled to India on a trip covering Jackie Kennedy. It was an amazing experience working with them and with Helen Thomas who was then Fran's competition with UPI.
I think now how fortunate I was to be allowed into this elite corps of the best and brightest women in the news business then. Actually, I told Fran many years later that she had inspired me long before I joined the AP. When I was in college, she gave a speech at a New Jersey journalism gathering, I believe it was a Sigma Delta Chi event. She was the glamorous White House reporter talking to the kids with aspirations. I never forgot her and when I had the chance to work with her I was dazzled.
Our paths crossed on stories occasionally, most notably when Squeaky Fromme aimed a gun at President Ford in Sacramento. Fran, Theo and I covered that one together.
But more often we were social friends. Fran made regular trips to California to visit her cousin, Richard Feynman, the Nobel Prize winning physicist. And always she and Theo and I would go to dinner. Then she began luring us to her favorite vacation spot, Las Vegas. Fran loved to gamble and, in our very last conversation Friday night, she was looking forward to the time when we could make another trip to Vegas.
At last year's JAWS camp, Fran found a casino near the airport and managed to gamble while waiting for me to arrive. It was her fun, her relaxation and she was very good at it. Somehow, she always managed to win, particularly at the craps table.
Sometime Saturday morning, after so many winning games, Fran threw a seven. She would have been philosophical about it I'm sure. Somehow this woman, who was the most optimistic person I ever knew, might have put a positive spin on this too.
Today was her 87th birthday and so many festivities were planned. She was going to the races where a friend from CNN had arrange to have the fifth race named for her. Fran's lucky number was five.
Fran has left an enormous legacy for young women journalists, a legacy of integrity, curiosity and dedication to a profession she saw as noble. I will miss her every day.
I am deeply saddened by the passing of Fran.
I admired her and our dear departed Eileen Shanahan more than there are words to express. Whatever success I had as a woman in journalism could be attributed to their encouragement and the doors they opened before I tried to enter the newsroom.
That she nearly died with her boots on is a tribute to how tough, dedicated and determined she was as a person and to the talent she shared with so many.
For me, Fran was a beacon of the possible when I first started working for the AP after college. Looking over at her at our last JAWS in Wisconsin as she talked about CNN, I felt that she was still a beacon for all our possibilities. I hope we can create a JAWS scholarship to honor Fran.
JAWS has lost a very special member, a great friend and wonderful colleague.
While I met her in the last decades of her life, I always thought of Fran as one of the youngest people I knew. My sympathies to the JAWS family and especially to her dear and close friends. JAWS, for me, will not be the same without Fran. In fact, the world seems diminished without her.
I really thought of Fran as someone who would live forever, but, then, she probably or possibly thought of herself that way, too, and was planning to attend the races today. What a great life and person, who always was humble (but, of course, persistent) and knew what she liked! Special sympathies to Linda and to Edie. I'm so glad you were with her for her Missouri Honor Medal induction.