Veteran US journalist Helen Thomas dies

WASHINGTON -- Veteran US journalist Helen Thomas, who covered 10 consecutive presidents dating back to John Kennedy in the White House press corps, died, local reports said on Saturday.

Politico quoted an email from the Gridiron Club to its members announcing Thomas' death. Thomas died on Saturday at the age of 92. She served for 57 years at United Press International, first as a correspondent, then as a White House bureau chief.

File photo of Helen Thomas taking her seat after recovering from a long illness in the Briefing Room at the White House (?reuter)

"Former Gridiron Club president Helen Thomas, our first female member, died Saturday morning at her Washington apartment after a long illness," Gridiron's Carl Leubsdorf wrote in the email. "She would have been 93 next month."

Thomas, a legendary figure in the White House press briefing room, retired after controversial comments she made in 2010. Thomas, then dean of the White House press corps, commented that Israel should "get the hell out of Palestine," and went on to say Israelis "could go home. Poland, Germany and America, and everywhere else."

The comments stirred an uproar, and Thomas retired in June that year.