Helen Thomas started covering JFK during his campaign and she's mostly famous for ending his press conferences with "Thank you Mr. President".
As an honor to her longetivity she usually gets to ask the first question in press conferences now.
I can't honestly remember if she wore hats, but I do remember she had a good rapport with JFK.
SC I know who you are talking about but I also do not remember her name. She was always in the back of the room and she would ask these long winded arcane questions about some budget item in the commerce dept., and JFK would ply off of her questions with some kind of joke.
