Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

Some might say that _A Lady, First_ is a rehash of Ms. Baldrige's book, _Of Diamonds and Diplomats_. However, the author has reflected on her life then and has written this book for twenty-first century readers. The stories are familiar, but they have been expanded to include so much that is of historical significance and that makes it worth reading.

Just when you think there can't be anything new or insightful written about Jackie Kennedy, along comes this book. The book is also about Clare Boothe Luce and Baldrige herself.

My favorite parts were when Baldrige revealed her failures and how she overcame what she and her generation considered her drawbacks and failures. Baldrige is an inspiration. I wish I had read this 30 years ago. I would never have wasted so much time regretting not looking like the straight-haired, model-thin girls of my generation. She inspires me now.

Excerpts from this book should be required reading for high-school girls. Every time I've been told no, I took it as final, door closed, you failed ... After reading this book, it is obvious that there is a better way to view and handle life's setbacks and rejections.

And this book is a very good read about Jackie Kennedy and Clare Boothe Luce.

I had this on my shelf for several years before finally reading it--and now I regret waiting so long! This is a captivating story told by someone uniquely placed in several high-level positions: aid to David & Evangeline Bruce in France; aid to Clare Booth Luce and Henry Luce in Italy; and chief of staff to Jackie Kennedy. In addition to this, Ms. Baldrige was the first woman executive at Tiffany's, and held a high level position at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. But what really endears her to the reader is Ms. Baldrige's way of telling hilarious stories on herself--the things that go askew during a dinner party, for example. She took her work very seriously, but is modest enough to tell stories on herself that can make one dissolve in laughter. I came away from this book with a higher appreciation of all that she has done. She is very likeable!

Letitia Baldrige busily whirled from exciting moment to moment, country to country, state to state and left the sweet smelling fragrance of her personality and fingerprints everywhere she went without much financial gain or personal recognition until now. She loved her work, and worked because she loved it, in an era when women had not yet fully emerged from beyond their households.

She loved people famous and not, and spent her time making them, the elite and others look even larger than life. It's her turn in this book to give an account of all she has achieved as her marks in history are still present and very alive today.

What an interesting and amazing, yet humble perspective of her world, and the world she changed and made more interesting for all of us.

She did it all, she did it well, and unbelievably, she did it ONE lifetime! I am sure she is not finished yet.

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.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book as my first glimpse into the life of Letitia Baldridge ... I was consistently intrigued as to what intimate political and social disclosure the next page would bring, all the while appreciating her honest and often self-deprecating narrative. She has in fact led an extraordinary life which she often acknowledged in reflection of each experience, always seemingly thankful for the opportunity to have played small, yet significant roles in our nation's history. She also represented the classic female struggle more commonly found for today's woman ... unafraid to admit her conventional desire for an all-American red-blooded husband, while also refusing to compromise all of her intelligence, skill and experience by stopping anywhere short of being an accomplished business executive, saleswoman, philanthropist and lecturer.

Anyone who has enjoyed biographies from other great woman of the last century (i.e. Eleanor Roosevelt, Katherine Graham) would definitely enjoy this one as well ...

Letitia Baldrige busily whirled from exciting moment to moment, country to country, state to state and left the sweet smelling fragrance of her personality and fingerprints everywhere she went without much financial gain or personal recognition until now. She loved her work, and worked because she loved it, in an era when women had not yet fully emerged from beyond their households.

She loved people famous and not, and spent her time making them, the elite and others look even larger than life. It's her turn in this book to give an account of all she has achieved as her marks in history are still present and very alive today.

What an interesting and amazing, yet humble perspective of her world, and the world she changed and made more interesting for all of us.

She did it all, she did it well, and unbelievably, she did it ONE lifetime! I am sure she is not finished yet.

I read this book years ago, and was telling a friend about it. When I saw that I could get the book on Amazon, I ordered it so I could reread it and share it with friends.