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Grace Tully
GRACE TULLY (9 August 1900 - 15 June 1984) was private secretary to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR).
Born in Bayonne, New Jersey, she received her secretarial education at the Grace Ins...view moreGRACE TULLY (9 August 1900 - 15 June 1984) was private secretary to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR).
Born in Bayonne, New Jersey, she received her secretarial education at the Grace Institute in New York. After graduation she was appointed as secretary to Patrick Hayes, bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.
In 1928 began work for the Democratic National Committee and was assigned to assist Eleanor Roosevelt, who was organizing support for presidential nominee Al Smith. Later that year, when FDR was nominated for Governor of New York, Tully went to work on his staff. After Roosevelt’s successful election, she began serving as the assistant to Missy LeHand, Roosevelt’s personal secretary in his Albany, New York office, for the duration of his four-year governorship.
She moved to Washington, D.C. in 1933 when Roosevelt was elected President. Both she and LeHand were important figures for FDR during his presidency, frequently accompanying him on his trips to Hyde Park and Shangri-La.
When LeHand suffered a stroke in 1941, Tully took over her position as personal secretary to the President, serving until and present at his death in April 1945 at his “Little White House” in Warm Springs.
She then served as the Executive Secretary for the FDR Foundation. In 1955 she joined the staff of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, working with Lyndon B. Johnson, the Senate Majority Leader at the time. She retired ten years later and died in 1984, aged 83.view less