TONIGHT: Relive Merriman Smith and UPI's glory days at panel discussion at 6:30 p.m.

Gil Klein

November 10, 2016

No one epitomized the scrappy determination of United Press International in the 1960s than its legendary White House correspondent Merriman Smith. You can relive his extraordinary life and times with people who knew him in a special program at the National Press Club on Thursday, Nov. 17, at 6:30 p.m.

From the Franklin Roosevelt administration through Richard Nixon, Smith had a front row seat at the White House as he battled the Associated Press for every breaking news story.

He won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of President John Kennedy’s assassination – 53 years ago this month. He and the AP correspondent fought over the telephone in the press pool car just four cars back from the presidential limousine.

Smith biographer Bill Sanderson will be joined by a panel of former journalists to explore “Smitty’s” life and work at the Nov. 17 program.

Tickets are $5 for members, $10 for nonmembers and free for students. Reservations can be made here.

The stellar panel of people who knew Smith will include:

Bill Sanderson, whose new biography of Smith, “Bulletins from Dallas,” has just been released.

Al Spivak, a former UPI White House correspondent.

Gwen Gibson, who worked closely with Smith in the Eisenhower White House who went on to the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Daily News.

Sid Davis, who as a correspondent with Westinghouse Broadcasting Co., was in the motorcade when Kennedy was shot and was aboard Air Force One with Smith when Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president. He went on to Washington Bureau Chief for NBC News.

Tom Johnson, a young assistant press secretary in the Johnson White House who got to know Smith well. Johnson went on to be publisher of the Los Angeles Times and the the Dallas Morning News, and president of CNN.

Also invited is Tim Smith, Merriman’s son.

The panel will be moderated by Mike Freedman, who had been managing editor of UPI’s Broadcast Division and now is a senior vice president at the University of Maryland University College. He teaches journalism at George Washington University and is a member of the National Press Club’s Board of Governors.