Note: This post was originally published in June 2010.

(CNN) - It was the spilled lamb juice that endeared Helen Thomas to me.

We had a mutual friend, Fran Lewine, who I knew as an assignment editor and field producer in our Washington bureau. For many years before joining CNN Fran was a White House correspondent for the Associated Press. Her chief competition often was Thomas, who reported for United Press International. They traveled the world together and were two of the women who broke down barriers that discriminated against women journalists in the nation’s capitol.