Social Secretary Quotes: Reathal Odum

Reathel Odum (center), Margaret Truman (foreground, right), and company leave the American Embassy in Brussels, Belgium for a luncheon with Queen Elizabeth of Belgium. June 15, 1951.

Reathal Odum, personal secretary to Bess Truman, 1945 to 1953

“We lived in the Blair House first; then we moved to the White House, and I lived there several months…I took an efficiency apartment at the Dorchester House on 16th Street. Mrs. Truman bought me a little coffee table. I still have it, and also a little nest of tables she gave me. Mrs. Helm gave me a couple of lamps.”

Credit: Harry S. Truman Library.

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