Pioneering journalist Helen Thomas, who quizzed 10 US Presidents, dies at 92

White House correspondent Helen Thomas, who saw 10 US Presidents in office, died on Saturday at her Washington apartment. She was 92.

She was best known as the longtime White House face of United Press International (UPI), where she spent 57 years.

Thomas was the first female White House bureau chief for a wire service and had fired pointed questions at 10 US Presidents from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama, the New York Daily News reported.

She was also known to be the first female officer at the National Press Club and the first woman member of the Gridiron Club.

A statement from Obama read that Thomas was a pioneer, who covered every White House since President Kennedy, and during her time never failed to keep presidents - himself included - on their toes.

Thomas left UPI in 2000, after the service was purchased by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church; she started working as a syndicated columnist for Hearst.

She resigned from Hearst after she was caught on videotape saying that Israelis needed to get out of Palestine and go home to Germany, Poland or the US.