Thompson Gets Editor Post in Lexington

By: (AP) Marilyn Thompson, an investigative reporter and editor for The Washington Post, has been named editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

The appointment was announced Monday by Timothy M. Kelly, publisher of the Lexington newspaper.

"I really do feel I have gotten the best editor I possibly can for this newspaper," Kelly said.

While at the Post, Thompson led investigative teams that won two Pulitzer Prizes for public service. Last fall, she broke the story that South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond, once a leading segregationist, had fathered a child with his family's black maid.

Thompson also was co-author of the 1998 book "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 will join Knight Ridder's Herald-Leader on July 1, succeeding Amanda Bennett, who was named editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, also owned by Knight Ridder.

"The excitement of taking this job is that it offers the challenge of taking a good, solid, lively newspaper with a fine reputation and making it truly great," Thompson said.

Thompson, 51, is a native of Salisbury, N.C., and a graduate of Clemson University. She began her journalism career at The Columbia (S.C.) Record.

She also worked for the Philadelphia Daily News and the New York Daily News.