Connie Lawn honored at ceremony marking her long career in journalism

Longtime National Press Club member Connie Lawn was honored at a ceremony Thursday with a key to her hometown of Long Branch, N.J., and Mayor Adam Schneider proclaiming Nov. 22, 2016, as “Connie Lawn Day.”

She once described her hometown this way: “Long Branch gave me a toughness I have needed to survive in the challenging worlds of reporting, politics, and business. Every day, as I go to work at the White House or some other locale (which I have covered since 1968), I say to myself, ‘Pretty good for a punk kid from Long Branch!’”

Lawn, who began her journalism career in 1968, has received international acclaim for her work, covering the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia and Watergate among her other assignments. When Lawn met Nelson Mandela, she said he told her he listened to her radio news reports while imprisoned.

Lawn received a lifetime achievement award from the New Zealand National Press Club in 2006. In 2012, she was named an Honorary Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit by Queen Elizabeth.

Her own news bureau, Audio Video News, reported from 14 countries.

The Washington Post said Lawn's life a "has been a combination of intrepid adventures and screwball situations that seem perfect for a screenplay about the redhead who challenged presidents, argued her way past the Secret Service and shouted her breaking news reports into the nearest landline available.”

At the ceremony, both Club President Tommy Burr and Governor Molly McCluskey praised Lawn's accomplishments.