12 Facts About Flora Lewis

Flora Lewis's father Benjamin Lewis was a lawyer and mother Pauline Kallin a pianist.

Flora Lewis was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received her master's degree from Columbia University's School of Journalism in 1942 just before turning 20.

In 1942, Flora Lewis joined The Associated Press in New York and Washington.

From 1956 to 1966, Flora Lewis was a reporter for The Washington Post, where her work landed her on the master list of Nixon political opponents.

The Times then had a rule against hiring wives of its correspondents, Flora Lewis contributed frequently to The New York Times Magazine and wrote for other publications.

Flora Lewis has the distinction of being the first woman to be given her own column on the New York Times op-ed page.

From 1945 to 1972, Flora Lewis was married to New York Times correspondent, editor, and publishing executive Sydney Gruson.

Flora Lewis received many awards for her journalism including for distinguished diplomatic reporting from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.

Flora Lewis received honorary doctorates from the University of California at Los Angeles, Columbia, Princeton, Mount Holyoke, Bucknell, Muhlenberg College, and Manhattan Marymount.

Flora Lewis received four awards from the Overseas Press Club: for foreign-affairs reporting, daily newspaper or wire interpretation of foreign affairs, and analysis of foreign affairs in Western Europe.

Flora Lewis received the Edward Weintal Award ; the Cross of the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, France's highest peacetime award ; the Matrix Award for Newspapers from New York Women in Communication, and the Elmer Holmes Bobst Award in Arts and Letters from New York University.

Flora Lewis wrote four books and contributed to a fifth, according to the Library of Congress catalog.