Remembering the Gracious Elegance of Lucy Winchester Breathitt

The 14th White House social secretary helped set the protocol during the Nixon administration.

Lucy Winchester Breathitt served as the 14th White House Social Secretary from 1969 to 1974 during the Richard Nixon administration. (Photo: Richard Nixon Foundation)

In the remaining hours of the Richard Nixon presidency on Aug. 8, 1974, White House Social Secretary Lucy Winchester sat on the floor in a room of the White House where she and members of her staff answered incoming phone calls from the American public. Each phone call would be followed up with a card from the Nixon family. This was a gesture that then First Lady Pat Nixon believed would mean a lot to the citizens who reached out during this troubled time. And, it was executed flawlessly by Winchester and her staff.

“The phones rang all day, people begging the President not to resign. As soon as people called, we were mailing out these cards. Everyone was taking calls, and hand-addressing these cards—marvelous ‘team spirit’ with a lot of tears,” writes Pat Howard, assistant to the social secretary, in her notes of that day…