Pioneering, Widely Honored Journalist Dickerson Dies

Award-winning journalist and author Nancy Dickerson, whose 1960 breakthrough as CBS News’ first female correspondent helped pave the way for a generation of women, died Saturday after a long illness. She was 70.

Dickerson, who died in New York Hospital, never recovered from a stroke suffered in January 1996, according to her son, John.

During her career, Dickerson in 1960 became the first female television reporter on the floor of a national political convention and later became the first woman to have a daily network television news show.

She earned a Peabody Award in 1982 for her acclaimed documentary “784 Days that Changed America - From Watergate to Resignation,” a look at the Nixon White House.

“It would be a great thing if this program could be shown in every high school and college in the country,” said U.S. District Court Judge John Sirica, who presided over the main Watergate cases.

Her assignments included the inaugurations of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, Kennedy’s funeral and Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech.

She eventually left Washington and reported from Europe, the Middle East and the Far East. For a 1980 PBS special, “Nancy Dickerson, Special Assignment: The Middle East,” she scored interviews with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

She moved to NBC News in 1963, where she spent seven years and did a daily news show. She founded the Television Corporation of America in 1980, producing specials for syndication and cable. In 1986, she became a commentator for Fox TV News - a position she held for five years.

Dickerson also wrote a 1976 book, “Among Those Present,” detailing the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford administrations.

Dickerson is survived by her husband, former Deputy Secretary of State John C. Whitehead, nine children and 11 grandchildren.