Cancer Merely Prolonged Hire of New Lexington Editor

By: Joe Strupp Publisher Timothy Kelly of the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader first approached Marilyn Thompson about becoming his new editor last September. Initially, she was interested.

But when doctors diagnosed Thompson with breast cancer in October, she was sure the job was lost.

"I called him to back out and he initially backed off," Thompson tells E&P. "But, to his credit, he kept checking in with me and asking how I was feeling. It meant so much to me."

Thompson, a 51-year-old veteran journalist, was working as an assistant managing editor at The Washington Post at the time of her diagnosis. She left the paper temporarily to undergo a mastectomy in October, followed by 16 weeks of chemotherapy.

Spending some of her time in between treatments teaching at Princeton University, Thompson had little thought of moving to Kentucky to run a newspaper, but Kelly remained interested and in touch.

"That just prolonged the search," Kelly says about the cancer treatment. "I felt she would be a terrific editor for us and was willing to put the search on hold." Kelly has hired three women editors during his eight-year tenure as publisher of the Knight Ridder paper.

Just before her chemotherapy ended in early February, Thompson was again contacted by Kelly, who said he was still interested in hiring her. "He said he really wanted me to come there," says Thompson, who has two teenage sons. "I had begun to see that having a new great challenge would be yet another thing to keep my mental energy focused."

But Thompson's medical situation was not over yet. She still had 28 days of radiation to undergo, which is set to end on Thursday. That didn't deter Kelly, who announced her hiring Tuesday.

"The whole notion of any publication sticking with someone through all of this is unheard of," says Thompson, who will begin her job in July. "He has been so supportive and helpful and patient."

Thompson led investigative teams at the Post that won two Pulitzer Prizes for public service, according to the Herald-Leader (Click for QuikCap).

In 2003, she broke the story that Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), a former leading segregationist, had long ago fathered an illegitimate child by his family's black maid. She also co-authored "Ol' Strom: An Unauthorized Biography of Strom Thurmond" with Jack Bass. Her most recent book is "The Killer Strain: Anthrax and A Government Exposed" in 2003.

Thompson is a native of Salisbury, N.C., and a graduate of Clemson University in South Carolina. She began her journalism career as a governmental affairs and investigative reporter at The Columbia (S.C.) Record, according to the Herald-Leader.

In 1982, she joined The Philadelphia Daily News as a general assignment and investigative reporter, later going to the New York Daily News in 1986 as a general assignment reporter. She was promoted to assistant city editor for investigations in 1987 and transferred to the newspaper's Washington bureau in 1988 to cover the Justice Department.

While in New York, Thompson wrote the first stories on Wedtech Corp. and the allegations of government contract fraud by that company. After covering the Wedtech scandal for several years, she wrote a book on the subject: "Feeding the Beast: How Wedtech Became the Most Corrupt Little Company in America."

Thompson joined The Washington Post in 1990, eventually being promoted to metropolitan projects editor the following year.

She moved to the Post's national desk in 1992 when she was named deputy national editor for domestic coverage. Thompson was promoted to investigations editor and then in 1999 to assistant managing editor in charge of the investigative team.

Kelly's support of women did not start with Thompson. Since 1996, when he jumped from editor to become publisher, the Herald-Leader has had three new editors in a row -- all of them women.

"I didn't set out to do it, I just found three very good people," Kelly says when asked if he purposely sought female editors. "I think there are lots of qualified editors of both genders -- but I was looking for someone exceptional."

Kelly appointed his first editor, Pam Luecke, in 1996, shortly after becoming publisher. Luecke, the paper's first-ever woman editor, held the post until 2001, when she became an endowed chair at Washington & Lee University in Virginia. Amanda Bennett, who served as managing editor/investigations for The Oregonian in Portland, followed Luecke as editor, but left the paper to become the first woman editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer in June 2003.

Herald-Leader Managing Editor Tom Eblen served in an acting editor capacity after Bennett's departure to allow Kelly time to find a replacement.