Warren Buffett on legendary Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham

Warren Buffett rarely gives interviews. But also rare is his friendship with the late, trailblazing publisher of the Washington Post, Katharine Graham. "If there's any story that should be told, it should be her story," he said. "If I was a young girl, I'd want to hear that story. It would change my self-image.

"She was one of a kind, and she was terrified of the job," Buffett said. "She knew she could do things, but she'd been told all her life that she wasn't [allowed], and that females didn't do things. I mean, her mother told her, 'Nobody's interested in listening to you.' And so, all of a sudden, here she is, and she had an all-male board that was waiting for her, and all they wanted was her to stay home and cash the dividend checks."

Graham was thrust into the role, taking over the company, after her husband, Philip Graham, died by suicide. She was then the center of some of the century's biggest stories. She made the decision to publish the Pentagon Papers that helped lead to the end of Vietnam War. It was Graham who supported the investigative journalism that led to President Nixon's resignation after Watergate.