Mama Ayesha's Hosts Party to Honor Helen Thomas and Serves 'Helen's Salad'

On Sunday afternoon Mama Ayesha’s Calvert café, a decades-old haunt of the late UPI White House reporter Helen Thomas, held a memorial in her honor. There were friends, family and a handful of her closest journalist colleagues. This is not the big, public memorial service that’s in the works, which is scheduled for Oct. 5 at the National Press Club, but we’re told it was a gathering of people Thomas would have wanted to party with at least one more time.Mama Ayesha’s staff called for and paid for the celebration of what they consider Washington (and maybe even America’s ) most celebrated Arab-Americans.