Linda Amster, researcher for the Pentagon Papers, gets her due

Amster got her start in newspaper research at the Detroit News in the mid-1960s. The newspaper offered a service called “Questions and Answers,” and if the Detroit News researcher could figure it out within five minutes, the caller would get an answer. Amster’s boss gave her some time to familiarize herself with all the research resources at the newspaper, so that when she took her first call, she’d be ready. “I was extremely nervous about this whole thing, and the phone rang and I said, ‘Questions and Answers,’” recalls Amster of her debut. An agitated male voice asked, “’Where can I get married in a hurry?’ I laughed to myself, it was so easy; it was in the World Almanac,” says Amster.