This collection documents the trailblazing career of Tyler native Sarah McClendon, a professional journalist, news syndication owner, and Washington correspondent. The collection comprises correspondence, publications, research, speeches, photographs, newspaper clippings, audiovisual recordings, drafts, artifacts, and memorabilia from Sarah McClendon’s tenure as a Texas newspaper journalist, veteran, and White House Press Corps member (spanning eleven presidencies, from FDR to Clinton). It also contains personal materials, including family correspondence, photographs, vital records, tax documents, and military service documents. Some of the significant topics represented in these files are veterans rights, with a special emphasis on women veterans and the V.A.; the military, covering her affiliation with the VFW, American Legion, WAC, and DACOWITS; women in journalism, including membership in the National Press Club, Women's National Press Club, Women in Communications, and White House Correspondence Association ; women’s rights organizations, including the Women’s Equity Action League, National Women’s Party, Women Involved in Farm Economics, and Soroptimist International; U.S. Presidents, including details of her personal and professional relationships with the presidents, their family, and their staff; the Texas Delegation in Washington, D.C., with a special emphasis on the activities of the Texas Breakfast Club and the careers of prominent Texas politicians; the defense department and U.S. intelligence agencies; Irish-American heritage, including a 1937 trip to Ireland and her term on the St. Patrick’s Parade Committee; foreign affairs, with a special emphasis on U.S.- Soviet relations, American actions in Cuba, the Iran-Contra affair, and the 1991 invasion of Iraq; World War II; East Texas, with a special emphasis on the oil industry, agriculture, veterans’ health, and Tyler, Texas; aging and the elderly, including A.A.R.P., health care and social security reform.
