A Lady, First: My Life in the Kennedy White House and the American Embassies of Paris and Rome

Author: Letitia Baldrige
List Price: $30.00
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ISBN: 0670894532
Publisher: Viking Press (11 October, 2001)
Sales Rank: 50,242
Average Customer Rating: 3.73 out of 5

Customer Reviews

Rating: 5 out of 5
An Interesting and Amazing Woman
Tish Baldridge has led an interesting and amazing life. She wasn't blessed with great wealth or beauty yet she managed to live and work on the upper echelons of American political and social society in the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, and onward.
Baldridge takes you through her beginnings in the midwest, her education at Miss Porter's and Vassar as one of the less financially advantaged students, her life in Paris and Rome working for such trend setters as Clare Booth Luce, her days at Tiffany, her years in the White House with Jackie Kennedy, and her life after.

Here's what is great about this book and her story: her life didn't begin and it didn't end with her association with Jackie Kennedy. Camelot fans will get great glimpses into those years from her vantage point. But there is a lot more to this book...

I would highly recommend this book to women who love biographies on the Jackie Kennedy, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn set. I also would recommend this book to women who enjoy the story of a self-made woman and a survivor and anyone interested in the social history of this era. I would not recommend this book to most men and I would caution all readers to note that this is a book filled with details of food, flowers, gowns, and jewels and not policy making or congressional bills. You learn about the parties that Jackie Kennedy went to in the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis not about the policy nuances behind the crisis.

I gave this book as a present to several female friends and they loved it.

Rating: 4 out of 5
Tish, we hardly knew ye
Yes, this book is a rehash of Diamonds and Diplomats but with one huge difference. In D&D Ms. Baldridge was not entirely frank. Since many of the people she wrote about in that book were still alive she had to sugar coat the truth considerably. Now, with Lady First she is free to set the record straight.

She explains fully for the first time why she really left the White House and although she clearly adored Clare Booth Luce she's now free to show that working for her was no picnic.

Also, we get a superior picture of the author herself. Bold or pushy, if you prefer she charted her own course and made her own dreams come true whether it was to get herself to Paris or into the CIA or to be the first American female tourist in Yugoslavia after WWII.

If you think of Leticia Baldrige as just being the etiquette lady or you only remember her from her White House stint then this book will will show you an entirely different side.

Rating: 5 out of 5
Class from the past!
Oh! how I wish I had a life like Tish Baldridge's! She is a gutsy and classy lady and I admire her for that. I loved to read that book because it goes to show that dreams come true when we put the energy and efforts for them to materialize.



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