Editing Stephen Early

{{Short description|American journalist}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Steve Early
| image               = Portrait of Stephen T. Early.jpg
| office              = 3rd [[White House Press Secretary]]
| president           = [[Harry S. Truman]]
| termlabel           = Acting
| term_start          = December 5, 1950
| term_end            = December 18, 1950
| predecessor         = [[Charlie Ross (journalist)|Charlie Ross]]
| successor           = [[Joseph Short]]
| president1          = [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]
| term_start1         = March 4, 1933
| term_end1           = March 29, 1945
| predecessor1        = [[Theodore Joslin]]
| successor1          = [[Jonathan W. Daniels]]
| office2             = 1st [[United States Deputy Secretary of Defense]]
| president2          = [[Harry S. Truman]]
| term_start2         = May 2, 1949
| term_end2           = September 30, 1950<ref name=UnderSecretary>Served as "Under Secretary of Defense" from May 2, 1949 to August 9, 1949.</ref>
| predecessor2        = Position established
| successor2          = [[Robert A. Lovett]]
| birth_name          = Stephen Tyree Early
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1889|8|27}}
| birth_place         = [[Crozet, Virginia]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1951|8|11|1889|8|27}}
| death_place         = [[Washington, D.C.]], U.S.
| party               = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
}}
'''Stephen Tyree Early''' (August 27, 1889 – August 11, 1951) was an American journalist and government official. He served as the third [[White House Press Secretary|White House press secretary]] under [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] from 1933 to 1945 and as the acting press secretary under President [[Harry S. Truman]] in 1950 after the sudden death of [[Charles Griffith Ross]]. Early served as press secretary longer than any other person.

==Career==
Early met Franklin D. Roosevelt while covering the [[1912 Democratic National Convention]] as a reporter for the [[United Press]]. From 1913 to 1917 Early was the [[Associated Press]] correspondent covering the Navy Department, during which time his acquaintance with Roosevelt and [[Louis Howe]] grew.

After serving in [[World War I]] with an [[317th Infantry Regiment (United States)|infantry regiment]] and the ''[[Stars and Stripes (newspaper)|Stars and Stripes]]'' he returned to the United States and was asked by Roosevelt to be the advance man for the 1920 vice presidential campaign. After the election, Early returned to the Associated Press. In August 1923 Early covered the western trip of President [[Warren Harding]] in San Francisco and was the first newspaper man to report there that Harding had suddenly died. In 1927 he became the Washington representative of [[Paramount News]], a newsreel company at the time.

=== Roosevelt administration ===
After the [[1932 United States presidential election|election of 1932]], Franklin Roosevelt asked him to serve as one of the three White House Secretaries, responsible for press relations. Early held that post throughout the Roosevelt years. As press secretary, he served as spokesman and troubleshooter for the president and maintained an open-door policy with White House correspondents. Having been a reporter, he understood the news business and did his best to accommodate it. Early also helped persuade the [[White House Correspondents Association]] to issue press credentials to [[Harry McAlpin]] of the National Negro Publishers Association. In 1944, McAlpin became the first African American reporter to attend presidential press conferences.<ref>{{cite book |first=Donald A. |last=Ritchie |title=Reporting from Washington: The History of the Washington Press Corps |url=https://archive.org/details/reportingfromwas00ritc |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2005 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/reportingfromwas00ritc/page/28 28–30] |isbn=0-19-530892-1 }}</ref>

He was also known to have had a temper. Less than a month before the [[1940 United States presidential election|1940 presidential election]], Early kneed a black police officer in the groin outside [[Madison Square Garden]]. Roosevelt had already been facing skepticism from black voters because of his failure to desegregate the military. Roosevelt responded days before the election by appointing the nation's first black general, [[Benjamin O. Davis Sr.]], and announcing the creation of the [[Tuskegee Airmen]].<ref name="gee">{{cite news |last1=Gee |first1=Taylor |title=15 October Surprises That Wreaked Havoc on Politics |url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/10/october-surprises-214320 |work=Politico Magazine |date=October 4, 2016 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Commercial and Defense appointments ===
In 1945, he became vice president of the [[Pullman Company]] He returned to the government as under secretary and later [[United States Deputy Secretary of Defense|United States deputy secretary of defense]] from April 1949 to June 1950.

=== Truman administration ===
In December 1950, Early was briefly [[White House Press Secretary|press secretary]] to President Truman, filling in after the sudden death of [[Charlie Ross (journalist)|Charles G. Ross]].<ref>[https://www.trumanlibrary.org/hstpaper/shorthst.htm Joseph H. Short Papers] Harry S. Truman Library.</ref>

==Personal life==
Early died at [[George Washington University Hospital|George Washington Hospital]] on August 11, 1951. He had suffered a heart attack a week prior, and despite signs of recovery, had a turn for the worse. It was reported that he died at about one in the afternoon. Survivors included Helen Wrenn Early, whom he married in 1921, two sons and a daughter. Harry Truman issued a statement calling him "an outstanding newspaper man" and "always on the side of President Roosevelt." Defense Secretary [[George Marshall]] said in a statement that he was "very distressed" at the news of Early's death and that he "served his country faithfully for many years." The full statements and other information on his life can be found in his ''New York Times'' obituary, printed on August 12, 1951.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1951-08-12|title=Stephen Early (Published 1951)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1951/08/12/archives/stephen-early.html|access-date=2021-01-21|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

In 1969, his widow donated his papers to the [[Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library]], where they could be accessed by the public.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,849288,00.html

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |first=Linda Lotridge |last=Levin |title=The Making of FDR: The Story of Stephen Early, America's First Modern Press Secretary |location=Amherst |publisher=Prometheus Books |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-59102-577-1 }}
*{{cite book |first=Graham J. |last=White |title=FDR and the Press |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1979 |isbn=0-226-89512-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/amj00grah }}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20030901135240/http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu:8000/findbrow.cgi?Submit=Submit+Query&collection=Early,+Stephen+T. Stephen T. Early Papers]
* [https://history.defense.gov/DOD-History/Deputy-Secretaries-of-Defense/Article-View/Article/585252/stephen-t-early/ Biography], Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense
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{{s-bef|before=[[Theodore Joslin]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[White House Press Secretary]]|years=1933–1945}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Jonathan W. Daniels]]}}
|-
{{s-new|office}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[United States Deputy Secretary of Defense]]|years=1949–1950}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Robert A. Lovett]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Charlie Ross (journalist)|Charlie Ross]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[White House Press Secretary]]<br>{{small|Acting}}|years=1950}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Joseph Short]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{WHPS}}
{{USDepSecDef}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Early, Stephen}}
[[Category:1889 births]]
[[Category:1951 deaths]]
[[Category:American male journalists]]
[[Category:United States Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:United States deputy secretaries of defense]]
[[Category:Virginia Democrats]]
[[Category:White House press secretaries]]
[[Category:People from Albemarle County, Virginia]]