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Belle Hagner, social secretary in the Theodore Roosevelt administration, 1901 to 1909, and Woodrow Wilson administration, 1913 to 1915. Hagner is pictured at left at a White House garden party with an unidentified guest.
“I would like to say that ever since this position was created for me, I have always felt very strongly that the job of secretary to the President’s wife is one which should not be solicited. I am happy to say that both times in my case, I was asked to take the place, without ever raising a finger to get it.”
Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
Alice Blech, social secretary in the Howard Taft administration, 1909. Seen here in “Miss Blech, Mrs. Taft's Secretary, Who is Reported Engaged” Daily Herald October 22, 1909.
“When Mrs. Taft set out to find a social secretary she looked about for a cultured, sensible, level-headed person who understood taking care of correspondence and would attend to her own affairs to the exclusion of all others.” She found 26-year old Alice Blech, a dark and pretty woman “who speaks with a slight German accent but expresses herself in easy, graceful English.”
—The Idaho Statesman, 1909
Laura Harlan, social secretary in the Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge administrations, 1921 to 1929. Harlan is seen here in “Mrs. Harding's Social Secretary” Kalamazoo Gazette, March 25, 1921.
“Her duties will be as complex as an ambassador.”
— The Kansas City Star, 1921
“What the cabinet adviser is to the president the social secretary is to the president’s wife.”
— The Baltimore Sun, 1921
Edith Benham Helm, social secretary in the Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt and Truman administrations, 1915–1921 and 1933–1953. Benham Helm, right, is seen here with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Malvina Thompson at the White House on April 1, 1941.
“To really know the ins and outs of Washington I think you must have lived there a long time, and Mrs. Helm could qualify as one of the ‘cave dwellers.’ She knew protocol and what one should do, and after being with us for the few days in the White House and straightening us out of our first difficulties, she decided she would stay to help us with the social side of our problems….I am sure I was at times a trial until Mrs. Helm came to know me better, for her social conscience where dinners and official functions were concerned was far more pronounced than mine.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt’s foreword to The Captains and the Kings by Edith Benham Helm, 1954
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum/NARA
Reathel Odum, social secretary during the Harry Truman administration, working at her desk in the White House on August 11, 1948.
“We lived in the Blair House first; then we moved to the White House, and I lived there several months…I took an efficiency apartment at the Dorchester House on 16th Street. Mrs. Truman bought me a little coffee table. I still have it, and also a little nest of tables she gave me. Mrs. Helm gave me a couple of lamps.”
National Park Service, Abbie Rowe, Courtesy of Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum/NARA
Letitia Baldrige, social secretary during the John F. Kennedy administration, 1961 to 1963. Baldrige is seen here on August 25, 1961.
“The solid, lasting values that shape one's life are a gift of experience, the result of a very precious process of continuous selection….To be a part of a precious moment of history is perhaps one of the greatest privileges in life.”
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library
Bess Abell, social secretary in the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, 1963 to 1969. Left to right: Bess Abell, Lady Bird Johnson, Tyler Abell, Lyndon Abell, Dan Abell, and President Lyndon B. Johnson sitting in the Yellow Oval Room for Tyler Abell’s appointment as Chief of Protocol on September 25, 1968.
“Enjoy [being social secretary]. It’s the best job in the White House, next to being First Lady.”
Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum/NARA
Lucy Winchester, social secretary during the Richard Nixon administration, 1969 to 1974. Winchester and First Lady Pat Nixon in the Family Dining Room, February 5, 1971.
“[Mrs. Nixon] always had a light step and she always had a word of encouragement, unless you had a tea that had been invaded by yellow jackets. I always remember her light heart.”
Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum/NARA
Maria Downs, social secretary during the Gerald Ford administration, 1975 to 1977. Downs and First Lady Betty Ford in the East Colonnade, November 20, 1975.
“[The White House] affects you. Every morning as I walked through the East Wing gates to my office I had a very special feeling—a ‘wondrous strange feeling.’ Over the years many guests have mentioned that feeling to me—the transformation that happens when they come to the White House.”
Courtesy of Maria Downs
Muffie Brandon Cabot, social secretary during the Ronald Reagan administration, 1981 to 1983. Cabot speaks with First Lady Nancy Reagan on the State Floor Balcony on May 13, 1981.
“I hope that everyone realizes that they’re viewing history in the making. This is a historically fascinating job, and you can’t keep notes. Just try and remember the high points.”
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum/National Archives and Records Administration
Gahl Hodges Burt, social secretary during the Ronald Reagan administration, 1983 to 1985. Burt, Hannelore Kohl, and First Lady Nancy Reagan have tea on the North Portico during the State Visit of Chancellor Helmut Kohl of Federal Republic of Germany on October 21, 1986.
“The White House should always be looked to as the arbiter of everything….Have everything at a level [that] the rest of the country can look up to.”
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum/NARA
Linda Faulkner, social secretary during the Ronald Reagan administration, 1985 to 1989. Linda Faulkner briefs White House aides in the Family Dining Room on July 1987.
“My advice [to social secretaries] would be to just dive in….You’re at the absolute center of the world, and you do it for as long as you can, and you just enjoy every minute of it…. It is a blessing, a great honor, a privilege.”
White House Historical Association
Laurie Firestone, social secretary during the George H.W. Bush administration, 1989 to 1993. Firestone (right) helps First Lady Barbara Bush escort Mrs. Roh Tae Woo from the Entrance Hall to the Green Room after the State Arrival Ceremony on July 2, 1991.
“Your life is not your own while you’re at the White House, and yet you have a good time doing it. You have fun because [the President and First Lady] made it fun…everybody is united in their purpose, having fun doing it, and so honored to serve [the President] and the United States.”
George Bush Presidential Library and Museum/NARA
Ann Stock, social secretary during the Bill Clinton administration, 1993 to 1997. Stock and Capricia Marshall with First Lady Hillary Clinton and staff in the Old Executive Office Building on June 13, 1997.
“I always send a care package to the new social secretary. It’s got vitamins, it’s got aspirin, it’s got nylons, it’s got a comb, it’s got hairspray, it’s got all the things you need to exist.”
William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum/NARA
Capricia Marshall, social secretary during the Bill Clinton administration, 1997 to 2001. Marshall, President Bill Clinton, and others at the residence staff Christmas party in the Blue Room on December 23, 1995.
“Embrace it all. Understand the structure of the White House, understand the traditions, the history….There is a beauty and a grandeur to the White House that I think should continue.”
William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum/NARA
Catherine Fenton, social secretary during the George W. Bush administration, 2001 to 2005. Social Secretary Cathy Fenton in the Green Room.
“The institutional memory is there as along as you know how to ask for it….When you plan these events, whether they’re social entertaining or official events, you have nonstop media coverage, and you have to be accountable.”
George W. Bush Presidential Library
Lea Berman, social secretary during the George W. Bush administration, 2005 to 2007. Berman and Laura Bush prepare for the Committee for the Preservation of the White House luncheon and Christmas buffet menu tasting in the State Dining Room on October 26, 2006.
“Most people are [coming to the White House] for the first time. They’re very excited. They don’t know what to expect. They’d arrive on the state floor and look around. Some of them would tear up. Some of them would be speechless….That was probably the best part of the job, seeing how happy people are to be there and how much they love their country.”
Amy Zantzinger, social secretary during the George W. Bush administration, 2007 to 2009. Zantzinger talks with Scott Sforza on the South Lawn during the State Arrival Ceremony for Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh on May 7, 2007.
“[A social secretary needs] great organizational skills. You have to be able to get along with a lot of people, because you have a lot of personalities and you can’t be a bull in a china closet. You have to be able to smooth situations over and work under pressure.”
George W. Bush Presidential Library
Desiree Rogers, social secretary during the Barack Obama administration, 2008 to 2010. Left to right: Students from L'Academie de Cuisine, Social Secretary Desiree Rogers, First Lady Michelle Obama, and White House pastry chef Bill Yosses in the White House Kitchen on February 22, 2009.
“[As social secretary] we have to be respectful of the time that we’re in, but at the same time be celebratory….We really did celebrate America.”
Julianna Smoot, social secretary during the Barack Obama administration, 2010. Smoot is seen here on July 7, 2010.
“I am humbled and excited to take on the role of White House Social Secretary and support the Obama administration in a different capacity….I have had the honor of building relationships in the international community through my work at USTR, and I am looking forward to implementing this experience at the White House.”
The Associated Press
Jeremy Bernard, social secretary during the Barack Obama administration, who stepped into the role in 2011. Bernard is seen walking through the booksellers area of the White House for the United Kingdom State Dinner on March 14, 2012.
“I am deeply humbled to join the White House staff as Social Secretary and support President Obama and the First Lady in this role….I have long admired the arts and education programs that have become hallmarks of the Obama White House and I am eager to continue these efforts in the years ahead.”
The Associated PressAbout this Gallery
For more than one hundred years, White House Social Secretaries have been individuals with a tenacity of purpose, loyal to the president and first lady, and a profound knowledge of protocol and society in Washington, D.C. As time passed first ladies naturally expanded the number of staff working on social events.
The position of White House Social Secretary traces its origins to the employment of Isabella Hagner as a salaried executive clerk assigned to First Lady Edith Roosevelt in 1901. Before that time male clerks in the president’s office assumed the duties of correspondence, invitation lists, seating charts, floral decorations, and menus usually under the direction of a presidential aide. First ladies have had a social secretary and clerks on the government payroll, but the positions were not recognized as part of the institutionalized presidency until the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration.
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