175. New York Times, September 25, 1955, p. 1.
176. New York Times, March 1, 1956, p. 14.
177. New York Times, August 7, 1957, p. 1.
178. Lash, Love, Eleanor, p. 131.
179. Mamie Eisenhower, “Vote for My Husband or for Governor Stevenson, But Please Vote,” Good Housekeeping (November 1952), p. 13.
180. Esther Stineman, American Political Women: Contemporary and Historical Profiles (Littleton, Colorado, 1980), passim. On Nixon’s speech, see National Business Woman (March 1957), p. 14.
181. Rosalynn Carter, First Lady from Plains (Boston, 1984), p. 292.
Chapter 8
1. Newsweek (February 22, 1960), p, 29.
2. Marilyn Bender, “The Woman Who Wins High Fashion’s Vote Is Jacqueline,” New York Times, July 15, 1960, p. 17.
3. New York Times, October 30, 1960, section VI, p. 10.
4. Lester David, The Lonely Lady of San Clemente (New York, 1978), p. 117.
5. David, Lonely Lady, p. 118, recounts a slightly different version, but the point is the same.
6. John H. Davis, The Bouviers: Portrait of an American Family (New York, 1969), p. 307.
7. Davis, Bouviers, p. 313.
8. New York Times, November 23, 1960, p. 14.
9. Letitia Baldrige, Of Diamonds and Diplomats (Boston, 1968), p. 162. The number is large for 1960 and included part-timers.
10. The New Yorker (January 14, 1961), pp. 77–78.
11. Bess Furman, “First Lady and Art Experts Plan Decor” New York Times, January 25, 1961, p. 37.
12. New York Times, June 12, 1961, p. 59.
13. Edith Gaines, “At Home: Building the White House Collection,” Art and Antiques (July–August 1981), pp. 76–83.
14. Public Law 87–286 was approved September 22, 1961.
15. Jack Gould, New York Times, February 15, 1962, p. 1.
16. New York Times, January 20, 1962, p. 14.
17. Davis, Bouviers, p. 326.
18. Katie Louchheim, By the Political Sea (Garden City, 1970), p. 222.
19. Margaret Mead, “A New Kind of First Lady,” Redbook (February, 1962), p. 8.
20. Sam Houston Johnson, My Brother Lyndon (New York, 1969), p. 108.
21. Pierre Salinger, With Kennedy (New York, 1966), p. 305.
22. Siena Research Institute, “First Ladies Poll.” See Appendix V. Jackie Kennedy’s popularity plunged after her marriage in 1968 to Aristotle Onassis, a Greek shipping magnate. She gradually recaptured the press’s praise in the 1970s as she held down a job in a major publishing house and appeared to have raised her two children with less scandal and unfavorable publicity than Robert Kennedy’s children faced.
23. Marianne Means, “What 3 Presidents Say about Their Wives,” Good Housekeeping (August 1963), p. 197.
24. Eunice Kennedy Shriver was the exception among John Kennedy’s sisters—she was graduated from Berkeley.
25. Among the more vivid accounts of Joseph P. Kennedy’s life, see Peter Collier and David Horowitz, The Kennedys: An American Drama (New York, 1984), pp. 1–172.
26. Patricia Zelman, Women, Work, and National Policy: The Kennedy-Johnson Years (Ann Arbor, 1980), p. 26.
27. Zelman, Women, Work and National Policy, pp. 26–27.
28. Nan Dickerson, Among Those Present: A Reporter’s View of Twenty-Five Years in Washington (New York, 1976), p. 63.
29. Herbert Parmet, Jack (New York, 1980), p. 304, cites oral history of Lady Barbara Ward at Kennedy Library.
30. Zelman, Women, Work and National Policy, pp. 23–25. Cynthia E. Harrison, “A ‘New Frontier’ for Women,” Journal of American History, vol. 67, no. 3 (1980), pp. 630–646.
31. Davis, The Bouviers, p. 316.
32. Lady Bird Johnson, A White House Diary (New York, 1970), p. 12.
33. Abigail McCarthy, Private Faces, Public Places (New York, 1972), p. 303.
34. Merle Miller, Lyndon: An Oral Biography (New York, 1980), p. 61.
35. Good Housekeeping (October 1968), p. 98.
36. Dickerson, Among Those Present, p. 98.
37. Barbara Klaw, “Lady Bird Johnson Remembers,” American Heritage (December 1980), p. 13. This is a verbatim interview.
38. Dickerson, Among Those Present, p. 98.
39. Marie Smith, The President’s Lady (New York, 1964), p. 38.
40. Klaw, “Lady Bird Remembers,” p. 13.
41. Miller, Lyndon, p. 52.
42. Elizabeth Janeway, “The First Lady: A Professional at Getting Things Done,” Ladies’ Home Journal (April 1964), p. 64.
43. Miller, Lyndon, p. 62.
44. Miller, Lyndon, p. 63.
45. Klaw, “Lady Bird Remembers,” p. 8.
46. Time (November 29, 1963), p. 33.
47. Robert Caro, The Path to Power (New York, 1982), p. 408.
48. Miller, Lyndon, p. 73.
49. Miriam Amanda Wallace Ferguson was elected Governor of Texas in 1924 after her husband, who had opposed woman’s suffrage, was impeached and convicted. See Sicherman et al., eds., Notable American Women: The Modern Period, pp. 230–231.
50. Anne Morrow Lindbergh, “As I See Our First Lady,” Look (May 19, 1964), p. 105.
51. Janeway, “The First Lady,” Ladies’ Home Journal (April 1964), p. 119. For Lady Bird’s recollections of this period, see “A National Tribute to Lady Bird Johnson on the Occasion of her 65th Birthday,” Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin, Texas.
52. Miller, Lyndon, p. 110.
53. Henry Brandon, “A Talk With the First Lady,” New York Times, September 10, 1967, section VI, p. 47.
54. Miller, Lyndon, p. 369.
55. Caro, Path to Power, p. xxiii, quotes attorneys who claimed that Lyndon Johnson continued during his presidency to make decisions about his holdings, “down to the most minute details.”
56. Klaw, “Lady Bird Remembers,” p. 6.
57. Luci Johnson Turpin, Grand Rapids Conference, April 18–20, 1984.
58. Klaw, “Lady Bird Remembers,” p. 13.
59. Caro, Path to Power, p. 302.
60. Klaw, “Lady Bird Remembers,” p. 13.
61. Brandon, New York Times, September 10, 1967, section VI, p. 47.
62. Klaw, “Lady Bird Remembers,” p. 13.
63. Marjorie Hunter, “Public Servant Without Pay: The First Lady,” New York Times, December 15, 1963, section VI, p. 10.
64. Klaw, “Lady Bird Remembers,” p. 7.
65. Dickerson, Among Those Present, p. 37.
66. Klaw, “Lady Bird Remembers,” p. 16.
67. Marvella Bayh, Marvella (New York, 1979), p. 90.
68. Dickerson, Among Those Present, p. 53.
69. Marie Smith, The President’s Lady (New York, 1964), p. 124.
70. Katie Louchheim, By the Political Sea (Garden City, 1970), p. 135.
71. Blake Clarke, “Lyndon Johnson’s Lady Bird,” Reader’s Digest (November 1963), p. 109.
72. Eric Goldman, Tragedy of LBJ (New York, 1963), p. 367.
73. Klaw, “Lady Bird Remembers,” p. 17.
74. Liz Carpenter, Ruffles and Flourishes (Garden City, 1969), p. 143. Perhaps Lady Bird’s enthusiastic campaigning helps explain her special role in Lyndon’s 1965 inauguration—she became, at his suggestion, the first wife to hold the Bible for the swearing in.
75. Carpenter, Ruffles and Flourishes, pp. 144f.
76. Klaw, “Lady Bird Remembers,” p. 8.
77. Luci Johnson Turpin and Lynda Johnson Robb, Grand Rapids Conference, April 18–20, 1984.
78. Klaw, “Lady Bird Remembers,” p. 6.
79. “Beautification Summary: the Committee for a More Beautiful Capital,” Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin, Texas. The same library also has oral history of Sharon Francis who worked on the beautification program.
80. Miller, Lyndon, p. 400.
81. Johnson, A White House Diary, p. 271.
82. Carpenter, Ruffles and Flourishes, p. 239. For a discussion of Lady Bird’s role in beautification, see Lewis L. Gou
ld, Lady Bird Johnson: Our Environmental First Lady (Lawrence, 1988).
83. Johnson, A White House Diary, p. 325. The cartoon, by Bill Mauldin, appeared in the Chicago Sun Times.
84. Letter to author from Nancy Smith, archivist at Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, July 17, 1984.
85. New York Times, January 19, 1968, p. 1, gives an account of the lunch.
86. Nancy Smith to author, July 17, 1984.
87. Goldman, Tragedy of LBJ, p. 361.
88. Meg Greenfield, “The Lady in the East Wing,” Reporter (July 15, 1965), p. 29.
89. Greenfield, “Lady in the East Wing,” p. 28.
90. New York Times, January 12, 1969, section IV, p. 12.
91. Life (December 13, 1968), p. 22B.
92. Siena Research Institute, “First Ladies Poll,” Appendix II.
93. Klaw, “Lady Bird Remembers,” p. 7.
94. New York Times, August 9, 1968, p. 21.
95. New York Times, September 24, 1969, p. 19.
96. New York Times, January 21, 1970, p. 94.
97. New York Times, March 2, 1971, p. 25.
98. Helen Dudar, review of Lester David’s book, The Lonely Lady of San Clemente, New York Times Book Review, November 12, 1978, p. 20.
99. Nan Robertson, “A Starring Role Is Not for Mrs. Nixon,” New York Times, January 26, 1970, p. 1.
100. David, Lonely Lady, p, 19.
101. David, Lonely Lady, p. 19.
102. Judith Viorst, “Pat Nixon Is the Ultimate Good Sport,” New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1970, p. 25.
103. David, Lonely Lady, p. 40.
104. David, Lonely Lady, p. 40.
105. Earl Mazo, Nixon: A Political Portrait (New York, 1968), p. 22.
106. Mazo, Nixon, p. 27.
107. David, Lonely Lady, p. 61.
108. Viorst, “Pat Nixon,” New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1970, p. 25.
109. David, Lonely Lady, p. 79.
110. David, Lonely Lady, pp. 79–80.
111. Richard Nixon, Six Crises (Garden City, 1962), p. 137.
112. Several versions of this “pledge” exist, including Mazo, Nixon, p. 127.
113. Robert S. Pierpoint, At The White House (New York, 1981), pp. 184–185.
114. David, Lonely Lady, p. 88.
115. Jane Howard, “The 38th First Lady Not a Robot At All,” New York Times Magazine, December 8, 1974, p. 36.
116. “The Ordeal of Political Wives,” Time (October 7, 1974), p. 15.
117. Time (October 7, 1974), p. 15.
118. Jessamyn West, “Pat Nixon: An Intimate View,” Good Housekeeping (February 1971), p. 66.
119. Flora Rheta Schreiber, “Pat Nixon Reveals for the First Time … . ” Good House keeping (July 1968), p. 62.
120. Viorst, “Pat Nixon,” New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1970, p. 25.
121. Robertson, “A Starring Role,” New York Times, January 26, 1970, p. 1.
122. In gathering information for this book, the author contacted each of the presidential libraries (and various historical societies for presidents before 1929). Each responded generously, but Richard Nixon’s New York office (he had no presidential library) replied in two sentences: one wished the author luck and the other was, “I am sorry to say that we do not have any of the information you need in this office.” Letter to author from John H. Taylor, Administrative Assistant, Office of Richard Nixon, August 1, 1984. However, Julie Nixon Eisenhower replied graciously to requests for insights into her mother’s record as First Lady; and Helen McCain Smith furnished considerable documentation and offered her own recollections.
123. David, Lonely Lady, pp. 82–83.
124. Schreiber, “Pat Nixon,” Good Housekeeping (July 1968), p. 62.
125. John Erhlichman, Witness to Power: The Nixon Years (New York 1982), p. 81.
126. David, Lonely Lady, p. 164. Smith assured the author that she had been accurately quoted in David’s book.
127. David, Lonely Lady, p. 166.
128. Ehrlichman, Witness to Power, p. 103.
129. Dudar, New York Times Book Review, November 12, 1978, p. 20.
130. Veteran Washington reporter to author, Grand Rapids Conference, April 18–20, 1984.
131. David, Lonely Lady, p. 165.
132. Helen McCain Smith to author, July 30, 1986. Smith graciously supplied the author with records to document her account of Pat Nixon’s White House activities.
133. Richard Nixon, Memoirs (New York, 1978), p. 535.
134. Washington resident and observer of many First Ladies to author, Grand Rapids Conference, April 18–20, 1984.
135. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, The Final Days (New York, 1976), pp. 164–166.
136. Julie N. Eisenhower, Letter to author, April 8, 1986.
137. New York Times, September 21, 1972, p. 41.
138. David, Lonely Lady, p. 163.
139. David, Lonely Lady, pp. 163–164.
140. West, “Pat Nixon,” Good Housekeeping (February 1971), p. 66.
141. Gerald Ford, A Time To Heat (New York, 1979), p. 39.
142. Seymour Hersh, “Nixon, Ford, Haig, and the Nixon Pardon,” Atlantic Monthly (August 1983), p. 64.
143. Dudar, New York Times Book Review, November 12, 1978, p. 20.
144. Letitia Baldrige to author, August 6, 1985.
145. Julie N. Eisenhower’s prominence in defending her father during the Watergate investigations can be included in her role as a campaigner—she was, once again, showing her father’s fitness to hold national elective office.
146. Helen McCain Smith to author, July 31, 1986. See also Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Pat Nixon (New York, 1986), p. 321.
Chapter 9
1. New York Times, July 16, 1985, p. 1.
2. Seymour Hersh, “Nixon, Ford, Haig, and the Nixon Pardon,” Atlantic Monthly (August 1983), p. 62.
3. Myra Greenberg Gutin, “The President’s Partner: The First Lady as Public Communicator, 1920–1976” (Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan, 1983), p. 540.
4. Betty Ford (with Chris Chase), The Times of My Life (New York, 1978), p. 55.
5. Myra MacPherson, “Betty Ford: The Untold Story,” McCall’s (July 1978), p. 22.
6. Marvella Bayh, Marvella (New York, 1979), p. 93.
7. Ellen Proxmire, One Foot in Washington: The Perilous Life of a Senator’s Wife (Washington, D.C., 1963).
8. Abigail McCarthy, Private Faces, Public Places (New York, 1972), p. 302.
9. Jean Libman Block, “The Betty Ford Nobody Knows,” Good Housekeeping (May 1974), p. 88.
10. Block, Good Housekeeping (May 1974), p. 88.
11. Ford, Times of My Life, p. 66.
12. Ford, Times of My Life, p. 205.
13. Gutin, “President’s Partner,” p. 536.
14. Rosalynn Carter, First Lady from Plains (Boston, 1984), p. 100.
15. Helen Thomas, Dateline: White House (New York, 1975), p. 273.
16. Carter, First Lady, p. 100.
17. New York Times, September 5, 1974, p. 25.
18. New York Times, September 8, 1974, P. 21.
19. New York Times, December 8, 1974, section VI, p. 36.
20. Lenore Hershey, “The New Pat Nixon,” Ladies’ Home Journal (February 1972), p. 89.
21. Sheila Rabb Weidenfeld, First Lady’s Lady: With the Fords at the White House (New York, 1979), pp. 86–87. For a full history of the Equal Rights Amendment, see Joan Hoff-Wilson, ed., Rights of Passage (Bloomington, 1986).
22. Betty Ford, Grand Rapids Conference, April 18–20, 1984.
23. New York Times, February 15, 1975, p. 31.
24. New York Times, February 15, 1975, p. 15.
25. New York Times, February 20, 1975, p. 31.
26. New York Times, February 20, 1975, p. 32.
27. Sheila Rabb Weidenfeld takes considerable credit for easing Betty Ford’s anxieties about her role, but she does not indicate that any serious consideration was given to changing course. See
First Lady’s Lady, p. 92.
28. Karen Keesling and Suzanne Cavanagh, “Women Presidential Appointees Serving or Having Served in Full-Time Positions Requiring Senate Confirmation, 1912–1977,” Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., March 23, 1978.
29. New York Times, August 10, 1974, p. 19. Rebekah Harkness, the philanthropist and dance enthusiast, was quoted immediately on Gerald Ford’s inauguration: “I feel confident that because [of Betty Ford’s past] she will work for the betterment of the arts and dance.”
30. Jane Howard, “The 38th First Lady Not a Robot at All,” New York Times Magazine, December 8, 1974, p. 36. Betty consulted with experts, according to Howard, because she “didn’t want to get [information] second hand from men—or comment just on the beautiful walls.” On the attention given to Betty Ford’s dancing in China, see John J. O’Connor, “Coverage of Ford in China: Was It Journalism?” New York Times, December 8, 1975, p. 63.
31. New York Times, October 10, 1975, p. 39.
32. Weidenfeld, First Lady’s Lady, pp, 86–87.
33. New York Times, September 5, 1974, p. 25.
34. New York Times, January 14, 1977, p. 21.
35. New York Times, December 17, 1974, p. 43.
36. Lewis Gould, “Modern First Ladies in Historical Perspective,” Presidential Studies Quarterly (Summer 1985), p. 536.
37. Abigail McCarthy, “Hers,” New York Times, November 30, 1978, p. C2. McCarthy noted that the book is about southerners “who are poor, isolated, and driven” but the women in the book often emerge as business partners because of “close knit families and domestic help.”
38. Rosalynn Carter to author, June 19, 1984.
39. Carter, First Lady, p. 10.
40. Carter, First Lady, p. 17.
41. Carter, First Lady, p. 15.
42. Carter, First Lady, p. 27.
43. Rosalynn Carter to author, June 19, 1984.
44. Carter, First Lady, p. 29.
45. Carter, First Lady, p. 44.
46. Carter, First Lady, pp. 44–45. Betty Glad, Jimmy Carter: In Search of the Great White House (New York, 1980), p. 138, demonstrates that the Carters were less principled in their anti-segregationist stance than Rosalynn indicates.
47. Carter, First Lady, p. 49.
48. Carter, First Lady, p. 105.
49. Rosalynn Carter to author, June 19, 1984.
50. See Edna Langford and Linda Maddox, Rosalynn: Friend and First Lady (Old Tappan, NJ., 1980), pp. 50–53 for an account of this trip from the viewpoint of Langford, whose daughter had married Rosalynn’s son.
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