("The story I am about to tell happened a long time ago. I...)
"The story I am about to tell happened a long time ago. I ask the reader to be lenient. My sources are my memory, my old blue leather diary - and my heart. If an occasional time sequence is twisted or a fact misplaced, it is only because of the tricks that memory plays as one grows older. The conversations in this book ring true to my ear and my heart, but it must be understood that they have been reconstructed from my memories. The events that I am writing about meant so much to me, however, and I have lived them over to myself during so many long nights, that I think my story is as close to reality as if it were only last night that I said my unsuspecting goodbye to the General, to Ike, to the man I loved."
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( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
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Kathleen Helen was born on November 23, 1908 in County Cork, Ireland, the daughter of a British career military officer; she grew up on her father's estate on the island of Inish Beg. When her parents separated, the sixteen-year-old Kathleen and a sister moved to London with their British mother.
She attended art and business schools, then worked as a model and as an extra for motion-picture studios.
After Britain declared war on Nazi Germany in September 1939, Kathleen joined the British Women's Auxiliary Corps and was assigned to the Motor Transport Corps. During the Battle of Britain, she drove ambulances in the dock area of London's East End and gained recognition for valor and courage.
In May 1942, Summersby was assigned to drive visiting American generals Mark Clark and Dwight D. Eisenhower, who were in London on an inspection tour. She favorably impressed both generals. "If ever I get back here, " Eisenhower told her, "I'd like you to drive for me. " Later in the year, when Eisenhower returned to London as commander of the European theater, Summersby was assigned as his driver and confidential secretary.
For the next three years, Summersby was among Eisenhower's confidants and closest aides. Tall and attractive, with high cheekbones, long flowing hair, and a slender figure, Summersby was a sparkling presence whose intelligence, quick wit, and vitality captivated Eisenhower. Summersby accompanied the general to meetings with Prime Minister Winston Churchill, King George VI, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, General Charles de Gaulle, and General George C. Marshall.
She traveled with Eisenhower to North Africa, Egypt, Sicily, Italy, France, Germany, and the United States. She narrowly escaped death in December of 1942 while en route to joining Eisenhower in North Africa when the ship she was traveling on, the Strathallen, was torpedoed by a German submarine and sank.
She arrived in North Africa in a lifeboat. While working for Eisenhower, Summersby became engaged to an American military officer, Colonel Richard R. Arnold, who was later killed in Tunisia by a mine explosion. Eisenhower informed Summersby of Arnold's death.
Eisenhower assured his wife that she had nothing to be concerned about. But late in 1973 the publication of Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S Truman by Merle Miller quoted the former president as saying that shortly after the war Eisenhower wrote to General George C. Marshall indicating that he planned to divorce his wife and marry Summersby.
Truman told Miller that he had the letter and Marshall's reply removed from official files and destroyed. Truman said that Marshall vowed to "bust" Eisenhower out of the army if he went through with his plans to marry Summersby. It is doubtful whether Eisenhower and Marshall exchanged such correspondence.
Eisenhower had no plans to divorce Mamie, though he had affection for Summersby. Forrest C. Pogue, Marshall's biographer and the first director of the Marshall Library, said that Truman's story probably was untrue. Pogue said it would have been out of character for Marshall to have given Eisenhower such a stinging reprimand. In her book, Summersby reported that she did not know if such a letter had existed but that she hoped that it had. "Eisenhower was under tremendous pressures and in need of company, " the general's grandson David wrote in his 1986 biography Eisenhower at War: 1943-1945.
Another Eisenhower biographer, Stephen E. Ambrose, concluded that Summersby was in love with Eisenhower but it was unclear whether the general loved her, "although obviously he had strong feelings about her. In fact, she was the third most important woman in his life, behind only his mother and his wife. " Marshall brought Eisenhower back to the United States for two weeks in January of 1944 for a reunion with Mamie.
Eisenhower later told Summersby that he got into trouble for calling his wife "Kay" on several occasions. When Summersby visited Washington in the summer of 1944, Mrs. Eisenhower treated her coolly. Mamie also asked an Eisenhower biographer, Kenneth Davis, not to mention Summersby in his book. Churchill was concerned about the relationship from an Allied military-security perspective.
As Eisenhower's secretary, Summersby had access to the most classified Allied secrets. She was also one of two aides who kept Eisenhower's diary. Churchill thought it was a security risk for an Irish woman to have high-level access to allied strategy and tactics. Such fears were groundless. Summersby was devoted to Eisenhower and to the Allied cause.
Although Summersby was a British citizen, Eisenhower arranged in 1944 to have her commissioned as a second lieutenant in the American Women's Army Corps. Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby, head of the WACS, protested Summersby's commission. But Eisenhower prevailed. Summersby was later promoted to captain. When Eisenhower returned to Washington, in 1945 to replace General Marshall as army chief of staff, Summersby was transferred to Berlin as an aide to General Lucius Clay.
In 1946, she was transferred to Hamilton Air Force Base in California as a public information officer. She was discharged in July 1947. Eisenhower Was My Boss (1948), a wartime memoir, was a best-seller that revealed nothing about her private relationship with Eisenhower. Eisenhower helped Summersby to become a U. S. citizen in 1950. But their intimate relationship ended when Eisenhower was ordered back to Washington in 1945. During her lifetime she declined comment about her relationship with Eisenhower.
In the 1960's and 1970's she worked as a fashion consultant and costume designer for television, stage, and motion-picture productions.
She died on Long Island, New York.
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
("The story I am about to tell happened a long time ago. I...)
Quotes from others about the person
David Eisenhower wrote that the truth of the Eisenhower-Summersby relationship was "known only by them, and both are gone. " The younger Eisenhower wrote: "Either she was special to Eisenhower, or her personal tragedy affected him in a special way, a concern that lifted him out of his own preoccupations. "
In the late 1930's, she was briefly married to publishing executive Gordon Summersby. Summersby married Reginald H. Morgan, a New York stockbroker, in 1952. They were divorced in 1958.
