LETITIA BALDRIGE, JACKIE KENNEDY'S CHIEF OF STAFF, DEAD
Bethesda, Maryland (JFK+50) Letitia Baldrige, White House Chief of Staff for 1st Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, passed away here in Bethesda on Monday, October 29 at the age of 86.
Letitia Baldrige was born in Miami, Florida on February 9, 1926 & grew up in Omaha, Nebraska.
Her father was a lawyer & won election as a state legislator & United States Congressman.
At the age of 35, she left her position as public relations director for Tiffany & Company to become Jacqueline Kennedy's social secretary at the White House.
Letitia Baldrige
Social Secretary
The White House
JFK Library Photo
She left in June 1963 to work at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago.
In an oral history interview recorded for the JFK Library in 1964, Ms. Baldrige said:
"(JFK) was like a wonderful department store manager who...knows everybody's name & knows how all the departments work &...how to wrap packages better than the wrappers in the wrapping room."
Many years later, she said:
"I would wager that if you asked any American woman which administration would she have most liked to work for as social secretary, she would pick Jacqueline Kennedy's White House as the place to be."
Sources
"Letitia Baldrige, Etiquette Maven, Is Dead at 86," by Anita Gates, The New York Times Obituaries, October 31, 2012.
"Letitia Baldrige, Kennedy White House Social Secretary, 1st Lady's Chief of Staff, dead at 86." foxnews.com/AP
