By: E&P Staff Robin Toner, the first woman to be the national political correspondent of The New York Times, died Friday at her home in Washington. She was 54.
The cause was complications of colon cancer, her family said.
In her 25 years at The Times, "Toner devised a meticulous personal method for checking and re-checking names, dates, facts and figures in her own raw copy, a step few reporters take," the Times related. Only half a dozen published corrections over the years, on more than 1,900 articles with her byline.
"When you watched her work - relentless on the phone, gnawing her fingernails to the nub, a perfectionist on the keyboard - you'd think: a workhorse, not a show horse," said Bill Keller, executive editor of The Times. "Then you'd read the result and it would be elegant. She was one of the best."
Dan Balz, her frequent competitor at The Washington Post, told the Times that her articles were "grounded in her knowledge of what makes a good campaign, but not tethered to the language or minutiae of politics."
Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts said in a statement: "Robin was a reporter's reporter who deeply cared about the people and the issues she covered. There was rarely a day during our health care debates that I didn't open the paper to read Robin's story and learn how what we were doing impacted people."
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