Ann Cook Whitman (June 11, 1908 – October 15, 1991) was an American secretary and government official who served as

chief of staff to the vice president The chief of staff to the vice president of the United States is the chief of staff position within the Office of the Vice President, part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States. The chief of staff has been responsible for ...

from 1974 to 1977.

Early life and education

Whitman was a native of

Perry, Ohio Perry is a village in Lake County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,663 at the 2010 census. History It is named in honor of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry to commemorate his victory over the British fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie in ...

. She briefly attended

Antioch College Antioch College is a private liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1852 as a non-sectarian institution; politician and education reformer Horace Mann was its ...

Yellow Springs, Ohio Yellow Springs is a village in Greene County, Ohio, United States. The population was 3,697 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is home to Antioch College. History The area of the village had long b ...

Career

Whitman moved to New York in 1929 to obtain work as a secretary. For many years, she was the personal secretary to David Levy, whose father was one of the founders of

Sears, Roebuck and Company Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began ...

. In 1952, while working as a secretary in the New York office of the

Crusade for Freedom The Crusade for Freedom was an American propaganda campaign operating from 1950–1960. Its public goal was to raise funds for Radio Free Europe; it also served to conceal the CIA's funding of Radio Free Europe and to generate domestic support fo ...

, Mrs. Whitman was recruited by

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

’s presidential campaign staff. She went to Eisenhower’s headquarters at

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, where she became Eisenhower’s personal secretary. After Eisenhower was elected president, Whitman accompanied him to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, and served as his personal secretary the entire eight years of his presidency. She helped manage Eisenhower’s correspondence and was responsible for maintaining Eisenhower’s personal files which he kept in his office at the White House. The Ann Whitman File is held at the Eisenhower presidential library and has been deemed an "extraordinary resource" by historians. When President Eisenhower left office in January 1961, Whitman accompanied him to his farm (now the

Eisenhower National Historic Site Eisenhower National Historic Site preserves the home and farm of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States, and its surrounding property of . It is located in Cumberland Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania, just outside ...

) in

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Gettysburg (; non-locally ) is a borough and the county seat of Adams County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The Battle of Gettysburg (1863) and President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address are named for this town. Gettysburg is home to th ...

, and continued to work for a few months as his personal secretary.Stephen Ambrose. ''Eisenhower: The President. Volume II''. 1983. Simon and Schuster. (v. 2), p. 558. She later joined the staff of New York Governor and later Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, for whom she worked until she retired in 1977. A biography of Whitman, entitled ''Confidential Secretary'', was written by journalist Robert Donovan in 1988.

Personal life

In 1941, Whitman married Edmund S. Whitman, an official of the

United Fruit Company The United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was formed in 1899 fro ...

References

External links

Ann Cook Whitman Biography, The Eisenhower Institute, Gettysburg College

Interview with Ann C. Whitman conducted February 15, 1991, with Mack Teasley of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library.

Ann C. Whitman Papers, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library

Papers of Dwight D. Eisenhower as President of the United States (Ann Whitman File), Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library

Ann C. Whitman Obituary, New York Times, October 17, 1991. {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitman, Ann C 1908 births 1991 deaths Chiefs of Staff to the Vice President of the United States Eisenhower administration personnel People from Perry, Ohio Personal secretaries to the President of the United States