As a small-town court reporter in Waterbury, Connecticut, back in 1974, Paula Eastes was looking to make a change, so she signed up to attend the Annual Convention of the National Shorthand Reporters Association’s to be held that year in Houston, Texas.
While at the convention, Paula passed two certification exams: the Certificate of Proficiency and the Certificate of Merit. Back in 1974, having a Certificate of Merit opened a lot of doors, as Paula quickly discovered, so when the chief reporter at the Superior Court in Washington, D.C. wanted to discuss a possible reporting opportunity, Paula drove to D.C., where she interviewed for that and several other positions.
Not long after returning home to Connecticut, Paula received a call from Hoover Reporting in D.C., asking if she would consider returning to Washington, D.C., all expenses paid, to work on the Rockefeller Nomination Hearings. Paula, usually known to be a smooth talker, returned the question with a stuttered, “Can I call you back on this?”
After talking it over with her best friend, Paula decided it was too big an opportunity to pass up, and began planning the trip as a “vacation.” Fearful that she might fail, Paula told no one, and swore her best friend to absolute secrecy.
Paula shared reporting duties with another reporter, switching out every hour until the hearings concluded. And so much for her secret “vacation,” the entire hearing was televised! In fact, the cameras seemed to zoom in on her nightly, plastering her picture all over the nightly news and newspapers. Everyone in the world now knew that Paula (at that time Snyder) was in D.C. taking the Rockefeller Nomination hearings, not vacationing.
No sooner had Paula completed the Rockefeller Hearings, she was sent to the House of Representatives to report a portrait unveiling ceremony. Imagine her surprise when President Ford showed up to address the crowd! As Paula put it, “It wasn’t the State of the Union or anything, but that didn’t matter. Wow!!!!!”
Following this most exciting week of her career, Paula returned to Connecticut, where her best friend, with whom she’d shared the secret, had taken one of the hearing articles, added “Paula Snyder” after all of the congressmen, laminated it, and gave it to Paula as a memento. It remains one of Paula’s most prized possessions — and the reason for Paula’s move from Connecticut to D.C., where she remains a continued presence in the court reporting community.