Rose Mary Woods (December 26, 1917 – January 22, 2005) was

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

secretary A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a ...

from his days in Congress in 1951 through the end of his political career. Before H. R. Haldeman and

John Ehrlichman John Daniel Ehrlichman (; March 20, 1925 – February 14, 1999) was an American political aide who served as the White House Counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Richard Nixon. Ehrlichman was an important i ...

became the operators of Nixon's presidential campaign, Woods was Nixon's

gatekeeper A gatekeeper is a person who controls access to something, for example via a city gate or bouncer, or more abstractly, controls who is granted access to a category or status. Gatekeepers assess who is "in or out", in the classic words of manage ...

Early life and connection to Nixon

Rose Mary Woods was born in northeastern

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

in the small pottery town of Sebring on December 26, 1917. Her brother was Joseph I. Woods, a sheriff of

Cook County, Illinois Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 2 ...

and longtime member of the Cook County Board. Following graduation from McKinley High School, Woods worked for Royal China, Inc., the city's largest employer. She had been engaged to marry, but her fiancé died during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. To escape the memories of her hometown, she moved to Washington, D.C. in 1943, working in a variety of federal offices until she met Nixon while she was a secretary to the House Select Committee on Foreign Aid. Impressed by his neatness and efficiency, she accepted his job offer in 1951. Woods developed a very close relationship with the Nixon family, especially with

First Lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non- monarchical head of state or chief executive. The term is also used to describe a woman seen to be at the ...

Pat Nixon Thelma Catherine "Pat" Nixon (''née'' Ryan; March 16, 1912 – June 22, 1993) was First Lady of the United States from 1969 to 1974 as the wife of President Richard Nixon. She also served as Second Lady of the United States from 1953 to 1961 w ...

. She accompanied Vice President Nixon on his 1958 goodwill tour of South America but was injured by flying glass in the attack on Nixon's motorcade.

Secretary to the President of the United States

Woods was President Nixon's

personal secretary ''Personal Secretary'' is a 1938 American comedy film directed by Otis Garrett and written by Betty Laidlaw, Robert Lively and Charles Grayson. The film stars William Gargan, Joy Hodges, Andy Devine, Ruth Donnelly, Samuel S. Hinds and France ...

, the same position that she held from the time that he hired her until the end of his lengthy political career. Fiercely loyal to Nixon, Woods claimed responsibility in a 1974 grand jury testimony for inadvertently erasing up to five minutes of the 18 minute gap on a June 20, 1972 audio tape. Her demonstration of how this might have occurred, in which she stretched to simultaneously press controls several feet apart (what the press dubbed the "Rose Mary Stretch"), was met with skepticism from those who believed the erasures to be deliberate. File:Rose Mary Woods.jpg, Woods demonstrates the "Rose Mary Stretch", which purportedly led to the erasure of 18-plus minutes of the

Watergate tapes The Nixon White House tapes are audio recordings of conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and Nixon administration officials, Nixon family members, and White House staff, produced between 1971 and 1973. In February 1971, a sound-a ...

. An expert analysis of the tapes conducted in January 1974 revealed that there were four or five separate erasures. Later forensic analysis in 2003 determined that the tape had been erased in several segments—at least five, and perhaps as many as nine. The contents of the gap remain unknown.

Death

Woods died on January 22, 2005 at McCrea Manor, a nursing home in

Alliance, Ohio Alliance is a city in eastern Stark County, Ohio, United States. With a small district lying in adjacent Mahoning County, the city is approximately northeast of Canton, southwest of Youngstown and southeast of Cleveland. The population was 2 ...

, near her hometown. A memorial service was held at the

Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and burial site of Richard Milhous Nixon, the 37th president of the United States (1969–1974), and his wife Pat Nixon. Located in Yorba Linda, California, on land ...

Yorba Linda, California Yorba Linda is a suburban city in northeastern Orange County, California, United States, approximately southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. It is part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and had a population of 68,336 at the 2020 census. Y ...

. She remained unmarried and had no children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woods, Rose Mary 1917 births 2005 deaths Nixon administration personnel Nixon administration personnel involved in the Watergate scandal Ohio Republicans People from Mahoning County, Ohio Personal secretaries to the President of the United States Secretaries

Early life and connection to Nixon

Secretary to the President of the United States

Death

See also

References