ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, March 17, 1996                 TAG: 9603150109
SECTION: BOOKS                    PAGE: F-4  EDITION: METRO 
                                             TYPE: BOOK REVIEW
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY GEORGE KEGLEY 

BOOKMARKS

A BASEMENT SEAT TO HISTORY. By Philomena Jurey. Linus Press. $16.95.

A Tokyo newspaper headline announced, "Famous VOA Unknown Retires," when Philomena Jurey left the Voice of America in 1989 after covering Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan for an overseas radio audience estimated at 100 million listeners. Her book gives a rewarding glimpse of recent history.

Jurey spent 28 years with VOA, including 14 years as White House correspondent, and as editor she supervised broadcasts in English and 43 other languages by a news staff of 200. She is relatively unknown in this country because the VOA is barred by law from broadcasting in the United States, but VOA overseas programs are familiar to millions. She is remembered in Roanoke as the former Phil Sparano who reported for the Roanoke Times in 1950-52.

From her work in the basement press room of the White House, Jurey tells inside stories about what presidents and lesser officials did, how they looked, where they traveled and how they were perceived by onlookers. This is a current events lesson at its best.

Jurey, a journalism graduate of the University of Missouri, first worked at The Southwest Times in Pulaski and came to the Roanoke Times in August 1950. Managing editor Bill Atkinson assigned her as the first woman in the city newsroom. "Blustery, beer-bellied" Atkinson taught the fledgling reporter how to write in plain language, Jurey recalls. She got into the all-male press box for the VPI-VMI Thanksgiving game at Victory Stadium when Atkinson submitted her name, Phil Sparano, and someone assumed she was a man. Jurey also wrote a consumer column, "At Your Service" for the Times.

George Kegley is a retired reporter and business editor for this newspaper.

Bookmarks is a regular feature of the book page that will focus on books, writers and literary events of local and regional interest and importance.

LENGTH: Short :   44 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  Philomena Sparano Jurey