Sally Quinn

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Sally Sterling Quinn (born July 1, 1941) is an American author and journalist.

Contents 1 Personal 2 Career 2.1 Newspaper journalism 2.2 Television journalism 2.3 Other 3 Controversies 3.1 Bill Clinton 3.2 Taking Communion 4 Residences 4.1 East Hampton 4.2 Maryland 4.3 Washington, D.C. 4.4 New York 5 Bibliography 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Personal

Quinn was born in Savannah, Georgia to Lt. Gen. William Wilson "Buffalo Bill" Quinn (November 1, 1907 – September 11, 2000) and his wife Sara Bette Williams (January 27, 1918-September 26, 2004). Both are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Her parents also had two other children, Quinn's younger sister Donna and younger brother William Jr. The Quinn family came from Ireland and are direct descendants of John Quinn, who came over as a stowaway on one of his father's ships, the Falcon in 1632. He was originally headed for Jamestown, but ended up shipwrecked on what is now Kent Island, Maryland. There were only two survivors of the wreck, young John Quinn who was sixteen at the time, and the ship's first mate; they were washed up on an oyster-shell beach. Her mother's family was originally from Wales; the progenitor of the family was Morgan ap William, who was a direct descendant from his fathers line, of Rhodri ap Mawr (Rhodri the Great, first king of Wales); he was also styled as King of the Britons in the Annals of Ulster. Morgans father was William ap Yevan of Wales, who married Joan Tudor, who was a first cousin to King Henry VII Tudor of England. The first Williams born in North America was Roger Williams, who was born December 15, 1625 in Old Rappahannock, Virginia; he married Joan Frith of Virginia. Rogers uncle was also Roger Williams, who was the founder Rhode Island.

Lt. Gen. Quinn was an intelligence officer and played a key role in the transition of the United States's intelligence service from the Office of Strategic Services to the Central Intelligence Agency. From 1964 to 1966 he was commander of the 7th Army in Germany. During WWII he held the rank of colonel; planned the invasion of southern France in 1944, captured Hermann Goering, and though he was not present when it happened, his regiment liberated the concentration camp Dachau. He arrived the next day when he heard the news.

For many years the Quinns maintained a residence on Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., where Bette Quinn was known for her cooking and entertaining. Sally Quinn reports in CC Goldwater's HBO film Mr. Conservative that Senator Barry Goldwater spent much time with the Quinns, often staying at their home, after his wife decided to remain in Arizona instead of coming out to D.C. while Congress was in session.

Quinn graduated from Smith College in 1963.

Quinn is married to Benjamin C. Bradlee, the former editor of the Washington Post, her former boss. Quinn and Bradlee have one child, Quinn Bradlee, who was born in 1982 when she was 41. They have acknowledged that he was born with Velo-cardio-facial syndrome, also known as 22q11.2 deletion and Shprintzen syndrome (after Dr. Robert Shprintzen who first identified the disorder in 1978 and diagnosed the Bradlee's son). Quinn wrote of her son's learning problems and attendance at special schools in her 2006 article "What My Son Taught Me About God."

[edit] Career

[edit] Newspaper journalism

Quinn began at the Washington Post with very little experience: reportedly called by Ben Bradlee after a report of her pajama party in celebration of the election to Congress of Barry Goldwater, Jr., the job interview included the following exchange.

"Can you show me something you've written?" asked Managing Editor Benjamin Bradlee. "I've never written anything," admitted Quinn. Pause. "Well," said Bradlee, "nobody's perfect." ^[1]

However, she soon demonstrated, as a reporter for the Style section, a talent for drawing out the subjects of her interviews and profiles. Henry Kissinger said, "[Post reporter] Maxine Cheshire makes you want to commit murder. Sally Quinn makes you want to commit suicide." A notable incident of her career was her claim that Zbigniew Brzezinski, then the National Security Advisor, jokingly opened his fly in front of a reporter, a claim that the Post retracted the following day.^[2]

[edit] Television journalism

In August 1973, Quinn tried her hand at television, joining CBS News reporter Hughes Rudd as co-anchors of the CBS Morning News.^[3] The show's anchoring team was its first disaster since debuting in 1963—ninety minutes before her television debut on August 6, 1973, Quinn, who had never reported for television before, collapsed while trying to fight the flu. The next day, she was forced to anchor solo when Rudd's mother died. Quinn's ad libs during the show's first week also tended toward the inappropriate—on one episode, following a report on the children of California migrant farm workers, she quipped that child labor "was how I felt when my mother and father made me clean up my room." Quinn left the CBS Morning News after the February 1, 1974 telecast.

[edit] Other

Quinn served as social secretary for Cherif Guellal.^[4]

Quinn had a cameo role in Born Yesterday, the 1993 remake of the 1950 romantic comedy.

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Bill Clinton

Quinn was critical of President Bill Clinton during the impeachment trial, stating that he had "fouled the nest,"^[5]. Quinn had a long-standing animus for the Clintons, possibly due to a perceived snub by First Lady Hillary Clinton, who declined a party invitation from Quinn.^[6] Regarding Whitewater independent counsel Ken Starr, she wrote:^[5] "Similarly, independent counsel Ken Starr is not seen by many Washington insiders as an out-of-control prudish crusader. Starr is a Washington insider, too. He has lived and worked here for years. He had a reputation as a fair and honest judge. He has many friends in both parties. Their wives are friendly with one another and their children go to the same schools." Starr had won the gratitude of Quinn's husband Ben Bradlee in 1987, as an Appeals Court judge, by dismissing a $2 million libel suit against the Washington Post.^[7] It was also pointed out by Harry Jaffe, writing for Salon, that Quinn's condemnation of Bill Clinton's adultery rang hollow coming from someone who broke up the marriage of her boss Ben Bradlee and then went on to marry Bradlee herself.^[6]

[edit] Taking Communion

In June 2008, the Catholic League issued a press release highly critical of Quinn for taking communion at the funeral mass for journalist Tim Russert.^[8] In an On Faith blog posting on the Washington Post website, Quinn—who is not a Catholic—wrote that she was "determined to take [communion] for Tim, transubstantiation notwithstanding" and that she "had a slightly nauseated sensation" after taking it.^[9] Catholic League president Bill Donohue responded that "Quinn's statement not only reeks of narcissism, it shows a profound disrespect for Catholics and the beliefs they hold dear." Since the incident, Quinn's judgment as moderator of On Faith has come under question by media commentators^[10][11] including columnist Ramesh Ponnuru, who wrote that "if [Quinn] does not understand the affront she gave then perhaps regularly blogging about religion for a major news outlet is not the right job for her."^[12][13]

[edit] Residences

[edit] East Hampton

In 1979, the Bradlee-Quinn family purchased Grey Gardens, the East Hampton mansion shown in the 1975 film of the same name. The two stay there only in the month of August. During the rest of the year it was lived in by Frances Hayward, also known as Frances Singer-Hayward. There are now new occupants who rent it out for the other eleven months of the year.

[edit] Maryland

Quinn's main country estate is Porto Bello Farm, which sits on the St. Mary's River in Drayden, Maryland. As reported by the Washingtonian magazine, Quinn has built a circular labyrinth there out of concrete. She finds walking the labyrinth contributes to her religious and spiritual contemplation. Porto Bello is a pre-revolutionary manor house built in 1740 by William Hebb, who was granted five thousand acres by the king of England; it now sits on 206 acres.

[edit] Washington, D.C.

Quinn and her husband live in the historic Laird-Dunlop House, in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. The house was once owned by Robert Todd Lincoln, who built the addition on the right side of the house for his daughter as a wedding gift.

[edit] New York

Last year^{[clarification needed]} Quinn bought, with her own money that she earned from a book of hers, an apartment in New York City on the Upper East Side. Inside the apartment is an Andy Warhol painting of herself.

[edit] Bibliography

• Quinn, Sally. The Party: A Guide To Adventurous Entertaining. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
• Quinn, Sally. We're Going To Make You a Star. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1970.

[edit] References

14. http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/819224/family/pedigree?fpid=-2045458828#pedigree=-801777655 
   (Roger Williams, Founder of Rhode Island)
15. http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/819224/family/pedigree?fpid=-2045458828#pedigree=-803446188
   (Roger Williams, First Williams born in North America)
16. http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/819224/family/pedigree?fpid=-802020248#pedigree=-801663297
   (Morgan ap Williams, Progenitor of the Williams Family)

[edit] External links

• Sally Quinn at the Internet Movie Database
• Washington Post writer nauseated by Communion