Ethel Payne, 79; Correspondent, Columnist

Ethel Payne, 79, considered “the first lady of the black press.” Miss Payne, a longtime correspondent and columnist for the Chicago Defender, covered politics, civil rights and international affairs for three decades. Her reporting from 30 countries included interviews with Chinese Premier Zhou En Lai, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and African dictator Idi Amin. She also was featured on the CBS program “Spectrum” and remained a broadcast commentator in the 1970s. The papers of the Northwestern University graduate are with the black history and culture collections of the New York library system and Howard University. On Tuesday in Washington, D.C., of a heart attack.