Anthony Leviero – Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army

by

Newspaper Correspondent

FURTHER TRIBUTE PAID TO LEVIERO
Eisenhower Expresses ‘DEEP REGRET’ AT PRESS SESSION
RIDGWAY VOICES SORROW

WASHINGTON, September 5, 1956 – President Eisenhower opened his morning news conference this morning with a tribute to Anthony Leviero, New York Times Correspondent and former White House reporter, who died of a heart attack on Monday.

A funeral service for Mr. Leviero will be held at 11 A.M. tomorrow in Arlington National Cemetery.

The President, before calling for questions from reporters, told them he thought it appropriate for him to express on behalf of all present “our very deep regret that Tony Leviero will not be here in these gatherings any more.”

“I knew him in the war as an officer; since then through my personal contacts here,” added the President, “and I am sure that all of the rest of you that knew him had the same respect for him and admiration and liking that I did.”

Frank Holeman, president of the National Press Club, of which Mr. Leviero was a member, appointed a committee of nineteen to represent the club at the funeral.  Francis M. Stephenson, president of the White House Correspondents Association, of which Mr. Leviero was a former president, names twenty-two members of the White House press corps to attend the service.

Mr. Leviero served as a Lieutenant Colonel in Army Intelligence during World War II.  He will receive full military honors at gravesite services to b conducted tomorrow morning by Chaplain Emmett Cashman, U.S.A., assisted by Chaplain John T. Brown.  Words of eulogy will be spoken by James Reston, Washington correspondent for the Times.

High military leaders paid tribute yesterday to Mr. Leviero, who also had covered the Department of Defense.

General Matthew B. Ridgway, retired Army Chief of Staff, express his “sorrow in the passing of one whose sterling character and qualities has my deep admiration.”

From Washington, Admiral Arleigh Burke, Chief of Naval Operations, sent a message of condolence to the Times.  “During my most recent association with him on “Face the Nation”,” Admiral Burke said, “I was again impressed with his integrity, consideration and abiding love of country.”

The Chief of Naval Information, Rear Admiral E. B. Taylor, also expresses regret at Mr. Leviero’s death.

“His zeal and industry for doing a complte reporting job,” Admiral Taylor said, “and his fairness in so doing not only presented a continual challenge to his fellow newsmen, but reflected a source of confidence of those in the military and Government.”

“Both personally and professionally, Tony Leviero will be sorely missed in Washington, where for so many years he worked for a greater understanding between his readers and those who make the news.”

ARLINGTON RITES HELD FOR LEVIERO
Associates and Leaders of Government Pay Tribute
To Times Correspondent

WASHINGTON, September 6, 1956 – Leaders of Government joined friends and professional colleagues in a last tribute today to Anthony Leviero, a correspondent for the New York Times who died of a heart attack Monday at the age of 50.

The reporter, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1952, received full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.  He was a wartime Army Intelligence officer.

At a graveside service, James Reston, Washington correspondent of the Times eulogized Mr. Leviero as an “aggressive” reporter who had won the “respect and admiration “of his colleagues and competitors.

“He was a proud and independent man, indifferent to the social arts and tricks of his profession,” Mr. Reston said.

“He was an aggressive and skeptical reporter, always suspicious of power, but fair and honest of everything he did.”

Among the men in public life who paid their respects to the newspaper man who had covered their activities in line of duty were Fred A. Seaton, Secretary of the Interior, and two Assistant Secretaries of Defense, Carter L. Burgess and Robert Tripp Ross.

The entire press corps of the Defense Department, which had been Mr. Leviero’s regular beat was present, and also several members of the Secret Service who knew the reporter over a period of several years when he held the White House assignment.

The National Press Club and the White House Correspondents Association, of which Mr. Leviero was once President, sent committees to represent them.  Among the representatives of the Times was its President and Publisher, Arthur Hays Sulzberger.

James C. Haggerty, White House Press Secretary, who was a long-time friend and former Times associate, attended as representative of President Eisenhower.

The service at the grave was conducted by Roman Catholic Chaplain Emmett Cashman, U.S.A., assisted by Chaplain John T. Brown.

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