clerks had just left the space for some reason so when you come back, you are coming to the missing soldiers office and you'll be able to learn about all of those aspects of locating missing soldiers, humanitarian relief work and how clara got involved in it and how it developed over time to be the extraordinary service that it is today around the world. social secretaries working for american first ladies helped to set the tone of presidential administrations. served first ladies from lady bird johnson to laura bush. all three worked in a wartime

white house, whether it was organizing a barbecue for lady bird johnson or exercising their diplomatic skills at a state dinner, social secretaries were the right hands of the first lady. in this hourlong conversation at the george w. bush presidential center in dallas, texas, they recalled their duties and life inside the white house. >> introduce the panel. richard norton smith who will be chairing this panel is a nationally renowned author. between 1987 and 2003 he served as director of the her boort hoover presidential library, the dwight d. eisenhower presidential library, the ronald reagan presidential library and the gerald ford presidential library, so he has presidential library experience and in 2003 he was appointed the founding director of the abraham lincoln presidential library in springfield, illinois.

he's an author and commentator on c-span and pbs and he's working on a biography of norman rockefeller. on our panel is bess abel, she's a kentucky girl who can walk with kings and prime ministers, maintain the common touch but could also lecture the president. she was five years white house social secretary. miss abel orchestrated dinners for kings and prime ministers and planned two white house weddings and advanced presidential trips from manhattan to manila. she designed and carried out events as different as an lbj ranch barbecue, state dinners in bo bangkok and white house country affairs. and also on the panel is katherine s. fenton, she's the current director of the governor's residence in new jersey and serves as special adviser for protocol to the governor's chief of protocol and

director of the first ladies staff. she's a former special assistant to president and social secretary for the first administration of president and mrs. george w. bush where she planned and implemented all entertaining within the white house complex. and then lastly, laurie firestone who is a california native. she served as white house social secretary to george h.w. bush and first lady barbara bush for eight years at the vice president's residence and four years at the white house. her duties included planning and executing state dinners, lunches, receptions at the white house and aboard. i know you'll enjoy this conference -- or this panel. thank you. >> good morning, everyone. you're in for a treat.

we have about half a century of white house history represented here. one of the things that defines the white house social secretary, first of all, it's a job that i think is redefined in some ways with every occupant and with every first lady, but one thing that persists is that a social secretary has a unique relationship and perspective on their first ladies. i recently had the opportunity thanks to the goodness of the white house historical association to do an oral history project interviewing all 14 surviving white house social secretaries, and i'll never forget talking to lucy winchester who held the job for pat nixon and who knew that pat nixon had a delicious sense of humor. first couple months of the nixon presidency, the president and his staff had just come back from europe, first overseas

trip, and apparently what lucy characterized as a couple of evil individuals in the west wing who thought it was the height of sophistication to return from paris with a large blowup doll. female doll for purposes we'll leave to their imagination. in any event, word got back to the first lady who for some reason thought it would be appropriate to requisition the doll. she and lucy sent it to the white house carpentry shop to be blown up. it turned out the daughters of the american revolution were coming to the white house the next day and president nixon not knowing what was going on had run into the secretary-general of the dar and said, oh, listen, why don't you come early, you come upstairs to the second floor, we'll show you around the private quarters.

so, cut to the picture of mrs. nixon and her social secretary getting off the elevator on the second floor, walking down the hall, striding with the blowup doll between them trying to find the best place to put it. they finally decided that the queen's room would be ideal, and it was stashed in the bathtub. and they left. and that's the end of the story. we don't know -- we don't know what happened, but needless to say that's the kind of history you don't read in the textbooks, and every one of these women, i'm not sure they have stories about blowup dolls, but they certainly do have uniquely personal history. bess abel, can you tell us something about lady bird johnson as surprising or unknown as pat nixon's sense of humor? >> well, i want to answer a different question.

because you heard them talk about how mrs. johnson came into the white house. well, it wasn't like when anybody else came into the white house. i mean, the president had been shot. in the johnson's home state, and mrs. johnson said the world l k looks at the limits of the abyss, so it was an awful time for them to come into the white house. and it was some weeks before they did move into the white house. and mrs. johnson was continually asked and her press secretary liz carpenter was just asked repeatedly when are the johnsons moving into the white house and

finally mrs. johnson had just had that up to here, and she said heaven would that i could help mrs. kennedy's comfort, but at least i can help her convenience. so, after that the questions stopped. but what a question. mrs. johnson was just an adventurer. when you came in to see her, she always wanted to know what you were doing. what was new with you. what was the latest. and when she traveled, she always had these little spiral notebooks about like this and she kept them in her purse with a ball point pen and she would keep notes of where she was going and what she was seeing. and she took shorthand.

and so fortunately i read shorthand. not as neatly as she did so i could read some of these notes that she had. but she -- we had flown -- when lbj was vice president, we had flown from the u.s. to the mediterranean. had flown the length of the mediterranean and landed in beirut and had just walked into the hotel room, which was supposed to be a rest stop before they went to iran and turkey and italy and lebanon, of course. and mrs. johnson was on the phone as i come into the room. she said can you get a car and let's go to ballbeck. i said what is ballbeck? i said it's supposed to be a

rest stop. and she said, i may never get here again. and so it was very short order and we were in a car going up over the lebanon mountains, past big stacks of -- men with big stacks of this wonderful flatbread on their heads going through the olive groves and the orchards into ballbeck. we just saw civilization upon civilization upon civilization. and so i'm so grateful to her for bringing me along for the great adventure. but also for taking me to ballbeck. >> now, you brought up the circumstances surrounding the beginning of the johnson presidency. i'll give you an opportunity to respond. recently i came across an oral history with a member of the marine band who is a violinist,

russian violinist, a great artist, who complained that the first -- of the johnson presidency, i think he said it was upstairs, anyway they were performing, and you came up and said "what the hell are you playing?" >> i never would have said that! never! never, never! a curse upon you, richard! >> i'm giving you the opportunity. the violinist said mozart. and you allegedly said, well, knock it off. >> we want show tunes! >> no, "the yellow rose of texas. " >> oh, no, no, no, no! i don't know whether, mrs. bush, you were given yellow roses from country to country or state to state, but i think mrs. johnson would -- every time she went someplace and somebody would play "the yellow rose of texas"

and give her a big bouquet of yellow roses, they thought they were so clever to have thought of it. and -- oh! and she was -- she was very, very polite, but she said, if there's ever an opportunity for people to give me a bouquet of wildflowers, that would be really nice or to play something else, even the "eyes of texas." >> it's like harry truman at the beginning of the nixon presidency, nixon wanted to let by gones to be by gones, so he donated the piano to the truman library and he went out to independence to make this presentation at the truman library. he sat down, grandly began to play "the missouri waltz." it turns out harry truman hated "the missouri waltz," had always hated "the missouri waltz" but mrs. truman said the good thing was by then he was so deaf that

he couldn't hear what the president was playing. laurie firestone, you were there for the entire first bush presidency, those were eventful years. significant years in the history of the white house and the country. tell us something about barbara bush that maybe we don't know. >> well, you know, i think barbara, everybody knows her because i think she was so open and, you know, yes, there may be a cute little story or something that hasn't been written, but i think she had a very unique ability to really be a very warm and friendly. she was everybody's friend. and so i remember back in the days of the vice president and, you know, television was becoming more and more important, and, of course, the

first lady's on it. but often vice president bush would be on it. but people would come to the house, and i would always greet them and say good-bye to them. and they were, like, i just had no idea they were so warm and they were so friendly and so humorous and, oh, we loved them. i just didn't know this about them at all. and i think sometimes that isn't always shown on television or, you know, you can read it but you can't -- but there's nothing like actually being there. but back to barbara, i think she was all of that, and she was always interested in everybody. >> how did she communicate her priorities? through your work. because, again, my sense is that this is a job that is redefined

in some ways, not only by each person who owns it but above all by each person. >> i always think i was very lucky being eight years at the vice president, so i certainly knew what she liked. and so even there she was never a micromanager. i mean, she trusted her staff. and she believed in them. she said we knew what she wanted. she was consulted all the time. but then she wasn't there every second, did you do it, you know, are you sure it's okay? i mean, she believed in us and we did it. >> we know that the first president bush was no fan of brocco broccoli. you averted an international incident involving the president of mexico. could you describe the diplomatic function of the social secretary? >> i think that this story not only have i told it, but i think

it's actually in mrs. bush's book as well. but the president of -- president salinas came for a state dinner, and many of you may remember that he was a harvard graduate. it was a period of time when they were trying to show that mexico was getting very sophisticated, more well developed, and so that eveni evening -- >> rolland. >> roland, thank you. said his name. anyway, roland was the pastry chef and he always did a beautiful job. and on the menu he said he was going to do a mexican fantasy. and because we were entertaining so often, we didn't have them do samples of every dessert that he was going to do, and we knew it was going to be beautiful.

so, that evening the desserts come up from the pastry kitchen into the pantry, and at that time they weren't individually plated. they were on a tray. and so i went out to the pantry to look at the desserts, as i always did, and kathy was there with me, and, oh, well, it was horrible. it was this disaster. what he had done was he had created a little adobe house out of marzipan, and inside that house was going to be fresh fruit and sorbets. that part was good. and around the ahe adobe house a little picket fence with flowers and everything. just the adobe house was bad, but then what he had done was the key, he had put a little sleeping mexican worker taking

his siesta with a big sombrero. and so i looked a it. you can't -- we can't put this in. send this in. and he said -- and so roland being a frenchman, oh, no! that's it. this is my dessert and he stomped out. and i'm looking at kathy and, you know, there's a lot of agony going on there for a few minutes and, of course, we had to make a decision rather quickly. so, we found a bouquet of flowers, and as each tray went into the kitsch dchen, we pluckf the little sleeping worker with his sombrero and tucked in a flower. and sent it into the dining room which was not perfect, but i thought this is so great, a wonderful story about barbara bush, too, because usually when

the desserts came to the table, she would make a big fanfare of saying how beautiful roland's dessert was and look at it and wanted everybody to see it, and this time i saw her and the platter came to her first. she looked at it, she got it right away. and she picked up the spoon and hacked the adobe house that split open and hopefully the president never saw it. but it was -- we agreed after that we were not going to do any, you know, food whether it was the main course or a dessert that we're trying to -- to the culture of the other country, it was going to be strictly american so -- >> kathy, you're in a unique position having worked very closely with three first ladies. i won't put you in the awkward

position of talking about your most recent employer. tell us something about mrs. reagan who as we all know had a kind of rough time at the start of it with the press in terms of the how did she deal with that? >> well, i think -- >> how did you deal with that? >> well, at first i was blessed i was number two during those days. i was deputy to two of her social secretaries. linda and gayle. so i think certainly i was aware of it. but i was really in a support position to the secretaries. within two months, mrs. reagan faced a horrible tragedy. her husband was shot which was terrible and i think that you go into a different mentality at

that point. i mean, the white house, you have to deal with this potential tragedy. fortunately, he came out of it. he was recovered beautifully, but i think it changes everything in a very drastic way, and i think that mrs. reagan, being mrs. reagan, she just had to know that things were right and i felt that that's how i was able to anticipate how best to serve her through my two bosses was that, you know, she really did have a checklist. she really did pay attention to the details. and she really was concerned about her husband primarily for his health. so i felt my role was to be as reassuring and on top of those e details as possible. and even the few times where maybe my boss was traveling and i had to be in charge, i just always had that mind set that, you know, i had had to have that che checklist. i had to reassure her so she wasn't too nervous or too concerned. and then i always felt it was

okay. and i think, you know, the press it's a feeding frenzy. they wanted to know how she was coping and i think that, you know, people who she was closest to, jim baker, i think they did their best to reassure her as well every day. >>. all of you have had to deal with the unexpected, with tragedy invading the white house. cathy, you were there on 9/11. what do you remember of that day? >> well, i always -- i'm always big on a setting and we've had several weeks. the one few blessings is we had beautiful weather and ultimately both in new york and in washington. that helped the relief workers and the emergency workers. at least it wasn't horrible weather.

we had our first state dinner. president and mrs. bush for the president of mexico was september 5th, vicente fox, and, again, we had beautiful weather. the dinner went flawlessly. i think the bushes were happy. it was a beautiful occasion, and then on 9/11 we had our next big event for the next administration, as far as entertaining and we had scheduled the annual congressional barbecue. very often it could be in june or september. we picked september for a new that was a big deal going back to have the u.s. congress to the white house in a casual setting very often with their families. we would have entertainment. a formal barbecue. the bushes had wanted tom prooenny, who was their good friend from texas. he was there. and a lot of logistics. a lot of elaborate setup. we had over 150 picnic tables on the south lawn. we had all of tom's chuck wagon,

all the cooking had been going on. the white house chefs had been cooking for days. i came in and woke up this morning and i thought how can we be blessed again with this magnificent weather. i get into work and ironically, i had had this letter from a man in new york. and i knew i had to call him. they were inviting the bushes to a movie screening. i thought i've got to call him. i didn't just want to send a letter. so i dial this man in manhattan. i always had my tv muted usually on fox or cnn. we were on the phone and i'm not sure who said it first. maybe i said it first because i think i glanced at the screen. it was maybe 8:25 or so. i said was there an accident? and he said, well, i don't know. did a plane hit a building in new york? because i had seen these various shots.

and he said, you know, i think i have a message from someone on my phone. so i said, all right. we ended our conversation. it was good to speak to you. just as i hung up was when i think my husband called me and my brother-in-law is a pilot. he said, kathy have you heard? and i guess one of our administrative assistants had already left the office. he said a plane has hit the world trade center. and then i think maybe he knew a second plane had hit. e he said stay in touch. i said, i will. and i hung up the phone. i looked up and it was this secret service agent who they were the ones in the blue blazers who conducted tours. i had known him for over 20 years. he said, kathy, you know, two planes have hit the world trade

center and a third has hit the pentagon and we're evacuating. i said, okay. i yelled at jeannie, and we grabbed our bags and we ran downstairs and i think as my mind went through as i walked out the door, i saw large weapons come again. i said this is strange. what is this going to do. i realized we were going into lockdown and they wanted us out of sight. they opened the gates and we began walking. there were about 20 of us at that point in the east wing who were left. and we started walking east. and jeannie's husband was in an office building up the street and that's where we ended up. the rest is history. mrs. bush went to an undisclosed location and we went on and the skeleton essential emergency workers at the white house remained. the chief usher and a few

others. and i know what they did in the next 48 hours was begin to take all this food and create almost over 700 plates of food to send over to the pentagon to the relief workers. so sang their praises. >> you had vietnam to deal with. out on pennsylvania avenue with demonstrators. but it didn't stay outside. it occasionally invaded social events. can you describe what it was like? >>. first of all, you have to imagine, linda and lucy's rooms faced pennsylvania avenue. and there were demonstrators out there through the evening. they would go to bed at night and there were chanters out there. hey, lbj, how many kids did you

kill today? i think the time it invaded the white house, i tried to avoid that. because i kent track of these ads that ran in "the new york times". it would have people, artists, writers, signing petitions to the president. and i kept track of those because i didn't want to invite those people to a state dinner. i didn't want them to be sending ugly regrets. we didn't need that. we wanted applause. but an intellectual had been added to the white house staff. a man from princeton named eric goldman.

and eric had this idea of a white house festival of the arts, which we had already been thinking about in my office. but i was talking to eric about it and the y part of it was that he was inviting writers to come and read their works. and i was really concerned about that because i thought that he ought to compare his list of writers to my list and "the new york times" advertisements. but he didn't. he said you just want to sensor things. and then when i said now, eric, we want to have the writers come in the b