Mary Jane McCaffree Monroe (née Fleming; October 28, 1911 – July 23, 2018) was a

White House Social Secretary The White House social secretary is responsible for the planning, coordination and execution of official social events at the White House, the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Function The social s ...

during the

Eisenhower administration Dwight D. Eisenhower's tenure as the 34th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1953, and ended on January 20, 1961. Eisenhower, a Republican from Kansas, took office following a landslide victory ov ...

and a press and personal secretary for

First Lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...

Mamie Eisenhower Mary Geneva "Mamie" Eisenhower (; November 14, 1896 – November 1, 1979) was the first lady of the United States from 1953 to 1961 as the wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Born in Boone, Iowa, she was raised in a wealthy household in C ...

. She also served as a

protocol Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states * Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state * Etiquette, a code of personal behavior Science and technology ...

specialist in the office of the Chief of Protocol and co-wrote a book on the subject.

Early years

Born Mary Jane Fleming in New York City, she worked as a secretary for different executives of the

1939 New York World's Fair The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchas ...

and as a secretary at a steel company and a distillery. In 1952, she became office manager for the Citizens for Eisenhower headquarters and began serving as Mamie Eisenhower's personal secretary in the 1952 presidential campaign.

The Eisenhowers

When

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, ...

won the presidential election, McCaffree went with the Eisenhowers to the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

and remained there for the duration of both of his terms (1953–1961). She was not only his social secretary, but she remained the now-First Lady's private and press secretary, helping her to answer nearly 1,000 letters a month and dozens of daily requests for public appearances. First Ladies in the past have had social secretaries and clerks, but the positions were never recognized as part of the institutionalized presidency, until McCaffree was listed in the Congressional Directory's top White House personnel as "Acting Secretary to the President's Wife."

Protocol specialist

Ten years after Eisenhower's presidency, McCaffree was a protocol specialist in the Office of the Chief of Protocol, part of the

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

, from 1971 to 1975. This led to her co-writing a book, titled ''Protocol: The Complete Handbook of Diplomatic, Official and Social Usage'' (), in 1977.

Personal life

While working at the White House, she married Floyd McCaffree, a history and political science professor, who died in 1963. Her second husband, Harry Monroe Jr., an auto dealer, died in 2004. Mary Jane died at age 106 in

Juno Beach, Florida Juno Beach is a town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. Its population was 3,176 at the 2010 census. As of 2018, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was estimated at 3,648. Juno Beach is home to the headquarters of Florid ...

, on July 23, 2018.

References

External links

Obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCaffree, Mary Jane 1911 births 2018 deaths American centenarians Eisenhower administration personnel Writers from New York City Women centenarians