- In 1966, the whole country was buzzing: President Johnson threw Barbara Howar out of the White House-a dramatic and very public fall for someone who'd had such a promising start.
- Maid of Honor at Norman Pearlstine's and Nancy Friday's wedding.
- Her final middle finger to the city ran in the New York Times in 1990-an op-ed titled "You Take Manhattan, I'm Gone." In it, Howar paints a vivid picture of a city saturated with crime and apathy. "Walking a dog in even a relatively secure neighborhood demands vigilance, lest the animal get bits of broken crack vials in his paws," she lamented.
- Washington's Channel 5 hired Howar to deliver commentaries for the 10 O'Clock News, which led to her co-hosting live coverage of Richard M. Nixon's inauguration. The station's general manager was so impressed with her no-holds-barred interview style that he put her on the midday news-and-talk show Panorama.
- She also created an underground newspaper for fellow students, naming it Epar News-rape spelled backward.
- Soon after arriving in D.C., Barbara, then twenty-four, was already ascending Washington social circles when she married Edmond Howar (pronounced like "flower"), a first-generation Arab American, in 1958-an interracial, interfaith match that shocked many, including her family back in Raleigh.
- Her conservative father, known as Big O, didn't approve of higher education for women, so he sent her to Holton-Arms, at the time a finishing school in Washington, D.C., that she later described as "a good place to store girls for a few years before marrying them off.".
- In a magazine spread featuring a glamorous photo of her dancing with LBJ and another of her cheekily standing outside the White House gates, she detailed everything from the Johnson daughters' dress sizes to their father's eating habits. She shared endearing stories about her time with the First Daughters, including their Secret Service code names (Luci was Venus, Lynda was Velvet), along with the conniving of staff members and rivals. For a president who valued loyalty and secrecy, Howar annihilated both.
- She left North Carolina on New Year's Day, 1957, to make her way in Washington, D.C., with nothing but a few traveler's checks in her pocket. Her father offered her no financial support but did launch a parting salvo: "The higher a monkey climbs, the more it shows its ass.".
- By age twelve, Barbara was already showing signs of being a provocateur. She attended a local Catholic school, where she engaged in "mortal mental combat" with the parish priest, whom she called Father Fart.
- Upset that her salary amounted to a fraction of that of her male counterparts, Howar left Panorama and was soon headlining Joyce and Barbara: For Adults Only, along with Joyce Susskind. The show seemed to usher in a new era for women on TV. On their debut, Susskind asked their guest, screen legend Bette Davis, "Do you feel you made being a bitch stylish?" Howar interjected, "She certainly gave me my start." It got canceled after only a short run. Howar said she was meant to play second fiddle to Susskind, and that was "an instrument I had no ear for.".
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