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Jesse Frederick Essary (August 22, 1881 – March 11, 1942) was an American journalist. He was part of the White House press corps in the decades before the Second World War.
 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (April 2018) |
Born in Washburn, Tennessee., north of Knoxville, on August 22, 1881, Essary was the son of attorney John Thurman Essary and Maetta Hill Essary. He graduated from Nashville's Montgomery Bell Academy in 1899, attended Emory and Henry College, and entered the newspaper trade in 1903 with the Norfolk Ledger in Virginia. With a knack for being in the right place at the right time, Essary was one of just two reporters on hand at Kitty Hawk in April 1908 as the Wright brothers made their first public flights, disproving skeptics who had called them “better liars than flyers.”.
Essary moved on to become Washington correspondent for a series of papers before 1912 settling in at the Baltimore Sun, where he remained for the rest of his 39-year career.
Essary went to Versailles with President Wilson for peace negotiations in 1919.
He was president of the Gridiron Club.
In late 1925, he moved to the Sun's London bureau for a year.
He was the author of Covering Washington (1927) -- surprisingly familiar accounts of spin and manipulation.
The Post reported that "President [Franklin] Roosevelt came to know Essary so well that he could recognize his deep baritone at crowded White House press conferences and would call him by name even when he could not see him.".
He retired as bureau chief in late 1941, remaining as a correspondent. J. Fred Essary died in his Washington office on March 11, 1942, aged 60.
On his death, President Roosevelt sent personal condolences to the widow, while Secretary of State Cordell Hull, a Tennessean, wrote to her that “Fred and I were close personal friends for 35 years.” Senate Majority Leader Alben Barkley paid tribute to him on the Senate floor. Colleague H.L. Mencken was among the active pallbearers.
The Washington Post editorialized: "It was not even because his career as Washington correspondent extended over nine administrations that he was called 'the Dean' by his colleagues.... The term was primarily one of affection and respect pinned onto him by younger men who looked up to him as a friend and guide and an exemplar of what a Washington correspondent ought to be."
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