Former Washington correspondent Don Larrabee, who wrote for the Bangor Daily News and Gannett’s Maine newspapers, had a long and storied career that included witnessing Maine Sen. Margaret Chase Smith’s 1950 “Declaration of Conscience” speech attacking demagogue Joe McCarthy.
Larrabee, 93, a Portland native who died Tuesday in the District of Columbia, is remembered as a dedicated reporter who for three decades kept Maine informed about what was happening on Capitol Hill.
“He was very well connected in Washington,” Richard Warren, publisher of the Bangor Daily News, said Friday.”His stories were always on point. And, more importantly, he was always a gentleman.”
After serving in the Army Air Corps, Larrabee took a $40-a-week reporting job in Washington in 1946 working for Bulkley “Buck” Griffin who owned a news bureau. Larrabee eventually took over the bureau, renaming it Griffin-Larrabee News Service.
“Don Larrabee was a terrific, fair journalist & a wonderful man,” Sen. Susan Collins said Thursday in a Tweet. “He will be missed by many who had the pleasure of reading his news stories.”
According to his daughter, Donna Palmer of Chevy Chase, Maryland, “He really got to know people — Ed Muskie, Margaret Chase Smith and all the way up to Bill Cohen,” she said. “They all got to know him and trusted him, knowing he was going to be fair, respectful and honest.”
After retiring from reporting, Gov. James Longley asked Larrabee to run a State of Maine Office in D.C., which he did from 1978 to 1989.
Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell said Larrabee was someone he looked forward to seeing in the halls of the nation’s Capitol.
“He was a terrific reporter,” Mitchell said. “A very nice man who I knew through the news business for many years. I had great respect for his ability, and we became good friends. I’m surprised and saddened by the news.”
Larrabee was president of the National Press Club when women were finally allowed to become members.
Larrabee was inducted into the Maine Press Association’s Hall of Fame in 2002. He was a Deering High School graduate and started the Portland school’s newspaper, Ramblings, which still exists.