Grace Halsell (May 7, 1923 – August 16, 2000) was an American journalist and writer.

Early life and education

The daughter of writer Harry H. Halsell, she studied at Texas Tech University from 1939 to 1942. During the 1940s, she was briefly married to Andy Fournier, the chief of detectives in the Fort Worth Police Department.

Career

Halsell worked for several newspapers between 1942 and 1965, including the ''Lubbock Avalanche-Journal'', the ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram'', and the Washington bureau of the ''Houston Post''. She covered both the Korean and

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

s as a reporter, and was a

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

speech writer for President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1965 to 1968. She wrote 10 books, including the critically acclaimed and controversial ''Soul Sister'' for which she took pills used to alleviate pigmentation problems in order to darken skin and pass as black, and ''Journey to Jerusalem'' about Christian, Jewish, and Muslim families in the Holy Land.

Death

In 2000, she died in Washington, D.C. of complications from treatment for

multiple myeloma Multiple myeloma (MM), also known as plasma cell myeloma and simply myeloma, is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that normally produces antibodies. Often, no symptoms are noticed initially. As it progresses, bone pain, ...

. She bequeathed her papers to the Mary Couts Burnett Library at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. Some of her work is housed at Boston University's Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center.Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center
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Books

* New York University, Undercover reporting database
/ref> * * * * * * * * * ** Revised and enlarged edition 2003 included transcript of CBS ''60 Minutes'' episode broadcast October 6, 2002 "Zion's Christian soldiers; how conservative Christians see Israel's role in bringing on the Second Coming of Christ."

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halsell, Grace 1923 births 2000 deaths Texas Tech University alumni Texas Christian University alumni Columbia University alumni University of Paris alumni Deaths from multiple myeloma Deaths from cancer in Washington, D.C. 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American women journalists American women non-fiction writers Journalists from Texas 20th-century American journalists American expatriates in France