Memories of Helen Thomas

(CBS News) Helen Thomas died this weekend. She covered 10 presidents beginning with John Kennedy.

She was the first reporter I met when I came to Washington, and the first woman to cover a president. Until she came, the women in the White House press corps (and there weren't many of them) covered the president's wife.

Helen wasn't very complicated. She started every day at the White House asking the same questions: Where is the president? What is he doing? Who is he talking to? And, why can't I be in the room with them?

Which is exactly what wire service reporters are supposed to do.

She had great respect for the presidency and the institutions of government, no patience with the self-important and the pompous. They all looked alike to her.

During Gerald Ford's presidency those of us who covered the White House were herded into the press room for a briefing from National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger one day.

The press secretary told us Kissinger was so busy he could only speak for 20 minutes and not a second more -- just too busy.

Kissinger took the podium and said, "Well, being a college professor my lectures are timed to 40 minutes -- I don't know if I could do it in 20 minutes."

Without missing a beat, Helen shot back, "Well, just start at the end."

Even the old professor got a laugh out of that.

Helen was 92.