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from Frank Clynes, July 16, 2014
Connie was a WTEV "Weather Girl." Now works in DC. | |
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from Truman Taylor, April 4, 2018
Long-time Club member Connie Long passes away at age 73 
Connie Long second to left, with former National Press Club Presidents John Hughes, Mark Hamrick and Myron Belkind. Long-time independent reporter and National Press Club member Connie Long died Monday April 3, 2018 at her Lake Barcroft home in Falls Church, Virginia, at age 73. Her death from a rare form of Parkinson disease was confirmed by her husband, Dr. Charles Sneiderman. She spent 50 years covering the White House, the longest-serving reporter there. She came to Washington in l967 after graduating from Simmons College in Boston and studying at Harvard and L'Institut Science Politique in Paris. After brief stints as a staffer on Capitol Hill and as a reporter for all-news radio WAVA in Washington, Ms. Long signed up as a volunteer supporter for Sen. Eugene McCarthy, D-Minn., in New Hampshire. She soon saw journalism as more important than politics and began a career as a freelance reporter. She then covered the White House run U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy, D-N.Y., was one of the few women reporters on the campaign trail, and covered his assassination in Los Angeles. She later went to Chicago where she was beaten up during the Democratic National Convention. On the campaign trail, Ms. Long picked up a number of clients in this country and around the world. Some stayed with her for over 20 years. Her international radio clients included networks in the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Israel, South Africa, and other countries. She created a news bureau, Audio Video News. In 1982, she was briefly kidnapped in Lebanon, while covering the expulsion of the Palestine Liberation Organization. She also covered the Vietnam War protests, Watergate and the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. She recounted her career in her book, "You Wake Me Each Morning – The Final Chapter," and in a Club podcast.. Ms. Long had an especially close relationship with New Zealand, winning a lifetime achievement award from the New Zealand National Press Club and an honorary New Zealand Order of Merit by Queen Elizabeth. She also had a champion race horse named for her. In 2016, she received the key to the city from the mayor of her home town, Long Branch, New Jersey, on Connie Long Day. Ms. Long's life will be celebrated in the near future; details will be announced at lakebarcroft.org. Contributions should be sent to Capital Caring Hospice or to the Parkinson Foundation of the National Capital Area. Besides her husband, she is survived by two sons, David and Daniel Rappaport. | |
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Submitted by Frank Clynes, Apr 5, 2018
I remember Vance telling me that Connie was lobbying him to make her a news reporter. When she realized it wasn't going to happen, she threatened Eckersley that she would have her father buy WTEV-6 and fire him. Vance said it was the funniest thing he ever heard. Later on, Clair McCullough from Steinman Communications, called him to say that a multi-millionaire by the name of Howard Martin Long had contacted the parent company, to inquire if WTEV was for sale. He claimed his daughter worked there as a weather girl. Fortunately it wasn't for sale at that time. https://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/03/us/clair-mccollough-92-executive-who-repaired-tv-s-reputation.html Connie got her first big break in news reporting, when Truman sent her to the Portuguese Madeira Feast in the city's North end, to do a fluff piece. But when we got there, all Hell had broken out. Because of the race rioting in the West end, Mayor George Rogers had imposed a city wide 9pm curfew, effectively shutting down the Feast. One activity had absolutely nothing to do with the other, and were many miles apart. The Portuguese were ready to start a riot of their own, against the first Portuguese mayor ever elected in New Bedford. The leaders were cursing him out in three languages. But when the camera rolled, Connie stuck to the fluff news angle she had come for. When I got her aside, I asked if she had lost her fugging mind. New Bedford was burning, the biggest Portugese feast on the East coast had just been forced into bankruptcy, and all she wanted to ask him about was Madeira wine and goat cheese. She giggled all the way to the Feast and giggled all the way back. In my view, the best WTEV weatherman of all time was neither Al Gaihan or Bill O'Brian. It was Bob Basset. He preceeded George Carlin, the Hippy Dippy Weatherman by several decades. |
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Submitted by Truman Taylor, Apr 5, 2018
Very nice Frank.... in regard to Bassett doing the weather I think that happened only once. O'Brien had called in sick, Reed told Old Bob to do weather... big mistake. Bob did his George Carlin bit and then spun the enormous revolving weather board that, as I recall, had the East Coast on one side and New England on the other. As Bassett swung the board he followed it around and disappeared behind it not to be seen again. This left Collis giggling, Delaney sputtering and O'Brien, on the phone from his sick bed threatening to kill Bassett. |
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