Personal History

Katharine Graham, June 16, 1917 - July 17, 2001 Newspaper publisher Katherine Graham was born into a wealthy and powerful family. In 1933, her father bought the Washington Post. After Graham finished college, she went to work at the Post. It was there that she met her future husband, lawyer Phil Graham. In 1945, Graham's father chose Phil to take over the struggling Post and Katherine stayed at home as a wife and mother of four. Phil suffered from manic depression and after a deep depression he committed suicide. At the age of forty-six, she was thrust into the job of newspaper publisher.

In 1971, Graham ordered the Post to print a copy of the Pentagon Papers, top-secret documents that revealed the truth about the United States involvement in the Vietnam War. Even though she was friendly with Henry Kissinger and well aware of the battle that would be launched from the Nixon administration, Graham broke the most important political story of modern day, Watergate. The Post continued coverage of the Watergate cover up and the Nixon administration grew increasingly angry. The Post was nearly crippled by their failure to renew crucial television licenses and stock plummeted. Graham managed to keep control over the chaos and the paper became internationally renowned and she has been hailed as the most powerful woman in America.

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