The East Wing: A History of the Staff to First Ladies
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The story of how First Ladies came to have a professional staff is, in and of itself, a fascinating glimpse into the growth of the federal government, the increased political stature of presidential wives, the enlarging public expectations of these women to consider the American people their constituency. It also reveals elements of the changing forms of societal norms, expansion of technology and the relevance of social life to political success.
Federal Funding
Today, the staff of a First Lady takes its offices in the East Wing of the 18-acre "White House complex," also consisting of the "Residence," and "West Wing." The staff is salaried by public funds through annual executive branch appropriations approved by Congress. These funds have been specifically appropriated to the East Wing staff since the Carter Administration with law that essentially states that their responsibilities are to aid the presidential spouse in efforts to aid the president in their official duties. The first federal funding for a staff member to specifically aid a First Lady in the clerical work of interfacing with the press and public and planning White House entertainments occurred during the 1901-1909 tenure of Edith Roosevelt; her secretary, Belle Hagner, went on to later return to the position under Ellen Wilson, from 1913 to 1914. The East Wing was built to provide office space for military personnel in the White House during World War II. Since military aides served as social aides at presidential entertainments, the social office naturally situated there.
Social Duties
Before that time, the increasing need for some professional help to First Ladies in carrying out the traditional responsibilities of White House hostess was met any way it could be - by wives of presidential aides and clerks, relatives who were often full-time residents in the White House during the old "social season" from November to April, or other government clerks who were "loaned" from different executive branch agencies. Martha Washington, for example, relied on the help of Polly Lear, wife of President Washington's primary aide Tobias Lear. Her role was essentially to prepare guest lists, send invitations and see to the smooth operations of receptions and other public entertainments. Mrs. Washington's immediate successor, Abigail Adams, depended upon her male housekeeper and his wife, the Brieslers, to enlarge their routine responsibilities of ordering food and maintaining the houses the Adamses lived in, to include social events. Julia Tyler's sister Margaret Gardiner worked as her social secretary. Sarah Polk used the wife of her husband's nephew as her social secretary, while he served as the President's private secretary. Mary Lincoln was helped by the housekeeping staff already in place and salaried by the government. Caroline Harrison's widowed niece Mary Lord Dimmock not only lived in the White House with her aunt and worked as her secretary - she later married her widowed uncle, when he was former President. Frances Cleveland paid out of her own pocket the salary of her friend Minnie Alexander to work for her.
Public Contact
Beyond the entertaining responsibilities of First Ladies, these women were called upon from the start by not only American but world citizens seeking financial or other help in dire situations, requesting souvenirs, seeking commercial or artistic endorsement, asking their views on issues, expressing their opinions about the President or policy, or trying to get them to intercede with officials on a matter pending before the government. Responses were handled in an ad-hoc manner over the years. There is evidence that Dolley Madison read and responded to some of her public mail. Louisa Adams even initiated correspondence with a magazine editor when she read a false account touching on the president's personal life. Many of the public letters never reached the eyes of the First Ladies, being first vetted and then handled by the President's private secretary. By the Lincoln era, the letters to First Ladies were routinely opened and read by those who handled presidential correspondence or an enlarging typing pool, once the typewriter came into use in the executive offices in the 1880's. Still, by the late 19th century, however, there were examples of those First Ladies who routinely handwrote their own responses to the public, such as Julia Grant and Frances Cleveland who composed thank you notes acknowledging things sent to them, or accepting or refusing invitations to join charity efforts. More frequently, however, responses from First Ladies were written by executive clerks and signed by the women. The most interesting examples of this were the letters Ida McKinley signed in response to public inquiries - the body of the letters were handwritten by the President himself. With the establishment of the First Lady's Secretary as a federal position in 1901, most often these secretaries were given the added responsibility of responding to public inquiries, and signing their own names with dictated responses from First Ladies or on form letters (some of which were first generated for First Ladies in the 1890's). Thus, women like Alice Blech (secretary to Helen Taft), Edith Helm (Edith Wilson), Laura Harlan (Florence Harding), Mary Randolph (Grace Coolidge), Mildred Campbell (Lou Hoover) Malvina Thompson (Eleanor Roosevelt), Reathel Odum (Bess Truman), and Mary Jane McCaffree (Mamie Eisenhower) became familiar figures in Washington and names across the country, increasingly finding themselves the subject of media publicity.
Media Relations
As the increasing sophistication of television in the late 1950's and early 1960's converged with the arrival of the youthful and popular Jacqueline Kennedy, the First Lady's office was overwhelmed with requests for information and cooperation on profiles they were doing about her in all formats - newspaper, magazine, books, radio, television. Thus, the first Press Secretary to a First Lady, Pamela Turnure, was hired with entirely separate responsibilities from the Social Secretary. With Lady Bird Johnson's tenure, the ascendance of the East Wing was assured by the hiring of Liz Carpenter, a Press Secretary who had been a professional working journalist and knew not only how to satisfy but sell editors on a story peg about the First Lady, in effect creating publicity about her boss's numerous activities. Carpenter structured the offices with professional management, serving as unofficial staff director as well and creating a strong liaison with the President's staff in efforts to coordinate the activities, media and efforts of both principals. She also designated specific responsibilities to assistant press secretaries and even temporarily requisitioned the West wing press aide and later CNN president Tom Johnson to handle media relations on the bridegroom of presidential daughter Luci Johnson in the days leading up to her wedding, covered by the international media. Particularly in the area of handling media questions or generating stories, tensions inevitably grew between the East and West Wings, the former seeking to control the latter if public controversies or other issues were raised by the First Lady that seemed to seriously impact the President.
Other Positions
Media interest in First Ladies grew in conjunction with the women's movement in the 1970's and staffs of Pat Nixon and Betty Ford encountered increasing pressures from many sides - the West Wing, the media, and special interest groups. With Pat Nixon's extensive domestic and international travels, and Betty Ford's involvement in domestic policy such as the fight for a constitutional equal rights amendment, the first, formal speechwriting was regularly conducted by multi-tasking staff members who also handled other new types of duties for First Ladies, such as scheduling and advance, or special projects. During Rosalynn Carter's tenure, the first Chief of Staff, Kit Dobelle, was finally hired to oversee all operations. Nancy Reagan became the first First Lady to hire a male Chief of Staff, James Rosebush, Barbara Bush the first to hire an African-American Press Secretary, Anna Perez, and Laura Bush the first to hire a male Press Secretary, Gordon Jondroe. With her own activism on many substantive issues of her husband's Administration, Hillary Clinton relied on members of her staff, most frequently her second Chief of Staff Melanne Verveer, to work closely on policy-related issues with the President's staff, thus more closely integrating the two staffs than at any other previous time.
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