in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies and today we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events aroundington, d.c., and the country. this is 40 minutes. >> i knew at the chamber of commerce and this is one of several traits that we have today, but this is a special lady that you are going to hear from. kathryn smith is the author of

the gatekeeper, fdr and the untold story of the partnership that declined the presidency. if you are not familiar, she was the gatekeeper and you have to go through her and you are not getting to him if you do not go through marguerite. the author is a journalist and writer with an interest in his entire circle. she's lived her life in georgia and south carolina and she has a degree in journalism at the university of georgia and has been a reporter and editor, columnist, she's been very involved through the international worldwide effort to eradicate polio. she's lectured and spokeshe hasn

that leadership arena. she's got a new book out that i know you all want to check out at her table and it's called a mystery novel shirley temple is missing. it's going to be great. so, you definitely want to check that out after this. i know i'm going to pick it up. i want to first set you up a little bit when catherine gets started she is going to be in full character of marguerite, and not for a while will she make somewhat of a transformation to the biography so i am going to introduce you to the wonderful character.

[applause] thank you for the introduction and a warm welcome that you are giving me here today. president roosevelt was so thrilled i had the opportunity to come down here to speak with you essentially because of the tennessee valley authority that was part of the first 100 days of gestation, quite interested to see the progress being made so he sends his warmest greetings. it's a beautiful place to be today in your city and in your area. i thought i might start off by telling you a little bit about how i came to work for franklin delano roosevelt as his department a of secretary. he asked first how many people

in this room are of irish descent, quite a few i thought. well, i am also. my grandparents came over the 1840s during the irish potato famine on what was called a coffin ship and its name because so many of the people that came on board were very sick or starving. working on a construction project at the church and a hatchet fell on his head and killed him that led to the

creatures only child and irish catholic family but married the daughter of another irish immigrant and i was the youngest of their four children so i was born in pakistan and went it was a small child we moved to somerville, which is a city within the area i got my accent. now, somerville is the blue-collar neighborhood of cambridge and what is in cambridge, harvard university. and who is the student at harvard when i was a little girl girl? franklin and eleanor roosevelt. we never did have mr. roosevelt as a border at that time there

were three careers open to women. you could be a teacher, nurse, secretary. i decided to become secretary. i went to my somerville high school and took classes making squiggles instance of words, office practice management. and 1917 when i graduated, we just joined in the great war. to work at the department of the navy at that time the department of the navy had a very charismatic young assistant

secretary named franklin and eleanor roosevelt but i never met him then either. in fact i have a rather spotty and embarrassing short career at the department of the navy. i was working in this area of top secrecy and that they would get a sheet of paper in stenography and we would type them out and then they would give another sheet that has nothing to do with the first and then another that had nothing to do with the other two. and i would come home to the boarding house at night just exhausted, shoulders aching, head pounding and i had no idea what i had done all my day. we went to see mount vernon and had a beautiful wonderful day until we got home.

there was a heart murmur for my fever the job was in order so this nice man at the department of the navy foun can't be a jobn philadelphia at the emergency shipping board so by the time they were winding down in 1920, mr. mccarthy wrote me a letter for franklin delano roosevelt on the democratic party ticket. he needed a good girl to come down to manhattan and work at the office.

i knew that he was going to be a very long campaign because i got the letter in 1920 and it wasn't until november, quite a long time for a presidential campai campaign. i didn't see much of mr. roosevelt because he was whistle stopping across the country by train he gave a thousand speeches during those three months but it was all for nothing. it was a bad year for the democrats. nobody wanted to hear about woodrow wilson, the league of nations and the democratic party ticket had nothing to run on and they were demolished by the republicans. imagine that. and then we got warren g. harding and calvin coolidge.

he had the most they were his friends. he died conveniently and calvin coolidge had been the governor of my state of massachusetts took over and all of the stuff came bubbling up at harding's attorney general was there twice. and mr. coolidge avoided trouble by basically doing nothing. they said that if you went into the oval office and he did not move you could not tell him from the furniture. his nickname was silent cal. one time a woman was sitting next to him at a dinner party

and she said she have a bet with a friend that she could g get him to say more than two words. he looked at her and said i shouldn't speak ill of the dead. he passed away last january. he decided that he would go to make some money for his family. they were from a well-off family but they did had five children and all of the boys were expected to go to harvard. he took a job as a junior partner in a law firm on wall street. are there any lawyers of the roomhe or anyone who is related to a lawyer just one. you look like a very nice young lady. i don't want you to take this personally. but i said to mister roosevelt when he asked me if i would be his private secretaryul i wasn't sure i wanted to work for a lawyer w that i thought law work

was really dull. he said to meow missy. let me explain about how i got the nickname missy. kind of before long everyone called me that. so he says i find law work pretty boring myself. don't you worry there will be lots more things to do.he i said with a stayed with a cousin in the bronx. mister roosevelt had it bad. hit the perfect car in the shofar. we were just getting along wonderfully i was doing so well that i started getting letters addressed to me. but than then that august of 1921 mr. roosevelt joined his family off the coast of canada

and there he came down with polio myelitis. and what a bitter pill that was for a man who was 39 years old and stood 6-foot three. over the next several years he did everything he could to be able to walk again. he wasn't having much success until the summer of 1924. he went to the democratic party convention and ran into an old harvard classmateem he was from columbus georgia and was the part owner he told mr. roosevelt of a young man who have polio and he have come an exercise in and exercise in the warm mineral springs there had finally been able to walk with just a king. this is the greatest wish. he often said to me and to others if a man is going to

run for office he has to be able to walk first. he had been using crutches. that's a medical device. so that october he loaded me and his wife eleanor and his valley onto the train and we were all the way from new york down to the piney woods of georgia. n it was a biteo of a shock what there was was quite expensive. not much phone service. or indoor plumbing. no paved roads within 10 miles. but some from mrs. roosevelt was a last drop was a day we went to get some chicken for supper. she realized we have a by the chicken on the hook.

we gave them to theck cook. and she prepared the chickens for supper mrs. roosevelt noted and saw the chicken execution and she didn't have much appetite for her dinner that night. and then the next morning as we are having coffee suppose franklin wants steak for dinner tonight. what level --dash mike ever should i do. okay i made that part up. never let the truth get in the way of a good story. i never do. mrs. roosevelt did have plenty of things to occupy her in new yorkrkveve with her various political causes. t she went back up to new york. i have to tell you she is a genius in so many ways. she got up to new york where

her friend al smith was running for governor as a democrat against her cousin ted the son of the late teddy roosevelt. she campaigned against her cousin he had worked in the harding administration even though he have nothing to do with that scandal. she and her friends have a huge papier-mâché teapot made. and then put a brazier inside. and everywhere ted would speak. they drove up and that change car and just sat there. i have no idea he have anything to do with teapot dome. he lost the election. he hasn't spoken to her yet. mister roosevelt was exercising in the warm mineral

waters and just loving itne he oeid he could feel his toes move for the first time in stthree years. he could sand and water up to his mid chest without support. he felt he had stumbled on a great therapy for polio that might enable him to walk again with just a cane. he gave an interview saying he planned to swim his weight back to health. after that month we all went back up to new york for the holidays and the following spring when we returned to warm springs there were a bunch of polio patients waiting for us there. they wanted to swim their way back to health two. there was no dr. there or no nurse. didn't stop mr. roosevelt.

i became nurse to let hand. we did everything we can to help could to help them strengthen the muscles still worked. and then in the off -- off-hours we created what we called the warm springs spirit.ha we the spirit of hope and fun and optimism. we put on skits and dances and wheelchairs. you have not laughed until you have seen a row of men in tutus and leg braces do a cancan together. and then mr. roosevelt bought the place in 1926. and turned into a private foundation. a it was able to hire real staff. they came from peabody college in nashville.

at that he was this close to being able to walk with just a cane. and then the democratic party came calling for him. how smith mrs. roosevelt's dear friend was running for president and they felt like he needed new york to help him he would be good to have a strong democrat running for governor of new york. he was talked into it. i was not happy about it. he was elected. unfortunately mr. smith lost. that march mr. hoover took office promising a chicken in every pot. and he was here to stay and poverty was about to be wiped out in the united states and

then late that october. the stock market crash. we found ourselves in this great depression. mr. hoover did a few things here and there. he liked to appoint commissions. to look into the causes of the great depression and how to address them and whether it was time to repeal it or do something to make it work so we didn't have criminals shooting each other over their beer wagons. he ignored their recommendations. and the people of america had just had enoughhs. he won in a historic landslide. he got all of 59 electoral votes. a new deal for the american

people was what he promiseded we all went down to washington. telling us that the only thing that we have to fear it was fear itself. the first hundred days of its presidency. he sent 50 major pieces of common u were stationed up. almost every bank in the country had closed.un there had been an assassination attempt on his life in miami. he took office the hundred days for full. including the tennessee valley authority legislation which addressed electrical power in your area. to address all of the trees that have been cut down.

that was all just in the first hundred days. there is a lot more to do to address the great depression. mister roosevelt is working very hard. at this point i'm going to take off my hat and let my hair down a bit. and let my biographer tell the rest of my story. she was an amazing person. she have a high school education as you've heard. despite having only a high school education. it was about 10% of the

population. she was an educated woman for her time. she is very smart and savvy. she was the perfect potential secretary. they are worked out a system. and she wanted to keep on doing that and keep up her other politicall causes. and whenever eleanor was gone. eleanor traveled so much. as a presidents eyes and ears she was gone a lot. they backed her up whenever she was gone.

and then she worked around the clock for franklin roosevelt also. when they came into the white house there were four secretaries that ran the place. compare that to the date when you have no idea what these people and thehe white house will do. they had four secretaries three men and a woman. they had louis how he was the political advisor. and like steve behan and he was hideously ugly who was under 5 feet tall. just a face pitted with acne and scarves.

he smoked like a chimney. he was so filthy that his nickname was lousy louis. he was a political genius. he was totally devoted to franklin roosevelt. he had two assistants and missy who did everything else. she have the only office adjoining him. she knew everything that went and and went on went on in the oval office. they were at shouting and distance distance between each other all day long. they would spend the time together. they would watch movies up at his study or work with his stampp collection. they liked to process the thinking.

and that was the time and he would suggest things. she was not i guess a woman. by the time the second term came around they missed moved up to what we would think of as white house chief of staff today. nobody did until eisenhower. that's how they came into being. after the president went to bed at night. no one could wake him up without getting the permission. so on march or september 1. they came into the switchboard. they patched it to missy's phone. i think we can wake the old man up for that one.

and they set up. through the night together. dealing with the international crisis.er fdr did not tweet pink goodness he did note little instructions and pieces of scrap paper. to address the crisis. signed fdr. 3:30 a.m. and gave it to missy and she kept in her scrapped book. where is $1 million for wildlife. i'm sure she found it.li it ended very sadly. she had had grammatical fever. there was no real treatment for at the time.

and when she was only 44 years out sheet a major stroke at the white house. she was partly paralyzed and it robbed her of her speech. fdr just sent every specialist in the country to work there. there's just nothing could be done. what the rest of her life there. it was only three more years before she have another stroke and died at age 47. they paid for all of the medical treatment. he also made sure that they had tickets to go to the movies and things like that. and things that she enjoyed. when she died the roosevelt family paid for her funeral. and to this day they keep doing the upkeep and a beautiful seminary there.

that is a story. i think at this point i can answer questions. surely someone has a question. brave soul. this probably took you a lot of research to do. it did take a lot of research i was just a such a labor of love. i started out in warms springs. i went down to warm springs. it's just a wonderful place to go.d i thought it was a bread.

we went up to the library. they worked with their archives. i found her family she has two wonderful great nieces who inherited all of the archives and papers and stuff. they just opened up their archives in their phones. and the hearts to me. that really helped flesh out her story. took me about two and half years to research and write the book.. i was working and onrk other things at the same time. i've a wonderful agent in new york and she sold the book to touch stone. and then it takes another year after that to get a book ready for publication.

other questions thank you brenda. when did your interest start how did that happen. it really began with my grandfather. who was a yellow dog democrat. this is a republican county. my grandfather was a radical. he was a dead yellow dog democrat. he have good reason. a young father and husband at the beginning of the depression.

you were not planned although you are loved. a newspaper printer. a lot of times he did get paid. that just really piqued my interest. i read a lot about it during my life. i just kept noticing this woman. what a fabulous life she have. and now i am. when i found out she died when she was 47 maybe not so much. no one had ever written one. that's what got me going. i'm just so glad i took that

journey she was just a good person. just the trajectory of her life you just can't make this stuff up. i am making stuff up about her now. they covert --dash like they co- writ a book. we started this book with the the littleruth shirley temple. in 1935. during a tour of 20th century fox studios. she have a picture made with her. when it be fun tod write a paper mystery around this. meeting shirley temple and inviting them.m on the way up surely is

kidnapped off the train. they have to cover her over the weekend because she eesupposed to start filming in the next monday. we've a lot of real characters in the book. j edgar hoover is in it. but then we made up some really good characters and i'm really proud to say that i made up a really nice boyfriend because she never have a really nice boyfriend. he is a really cool fbi agent. he he's a straight shooter andei all that. i do have it for sale at my table. and we have another one written. it's going to be a series. missy will continue to live through my books.s. [inaudible conversations] have

you ever thought about other relationships with other presidents and their executive secretaries after you've written this book. the most famous one is nixon and rosemary woods. really amazing secretary also. the next book i'm hoping to start soon is a biography of a woman named gertrude sanford. she was born in 1902. she lived almost the whole 20th century she was a very wealthy heiress from new york. her fatherew owned sanford carpet company. but she was a typical girl for her age.

she was aas big game hunter. and she captured all the specimensnd and have the mountain for national history museums. she was a flapper of the good era. a she went skiing and her evening gown. and then when world war ii started she joined the oss which was a spy agencyy she was over the cable desk. then she went to france after france fell to the allies and accidentally got captured by the germans.en and then then she just went on the to have this amazing life. i've talked to her secretary who said gertrude was a feminist before anyone knew what that was.he

i'll be working on that book next. she was quite a gal.. before i asked the question. in the current affairs in this country was there any indication about any kind of romantic relationships i do address that in the gatekeeper.oo we really just don't know. fdr did not leave a diary. people speculated about it even then.cu they certainly have the opportunity all through the 1920s they spent the winters together on how sport -- on a houseboat. they constantly havesttl compan. has 14 people on it all the

time. t it could've happened. she did have a boyfriend. all through the time she was in the white house. sshe was involved with william christian bullet. he was gone for long periods of time and whenever he came home. he was a reall player. and after france fell to the nazis and came home for good. she broke it off with him. i think the boyfriend who really wanted an ocean between. he adored her. but whether a witch in that direction there's just no way to know. people tend to focus on that. and that tends to overshadow

her huge role in this administration. her influence, her prestige and her role as white house chief of staff. that's what we should remember. any other questions. thank you for your kind attention. i've enjoyed this. [inaudible conversations] this weekend on the c-span network. a debate on the suit by the same couple against the colorado bakery for refusing to make their wedding cake. and sunday at 6:30 p.m.

chairman of the u.s. commission on international religious freedom on the current state of religious liberty in the u.s. and around the world. saturday on book tv. james swanson talks with the associated press writer about events leading up to the assassination of martin luther king junior. the second lady karen pentz and her daughter charlotte share the story of their family's pet rabbit. and the changes that have been made along the way. this weekend on the c-span networks.