Rights amendment. She was the first incumbent first lady to disclose purposely her prochoice view. Court ev and she publicly called for the appointment of a woman on the. Even before she started lobbying her husband too do so. Break in conclusion, first ladies thr continue to break barriers. They continue to forth new notg roles. They do it in their own way. Get and there is nothing wrong with that. They can use their special voice to get messages out to draw attention to causes. Rose lynn carter once said that she felt that she was in a special position and that it was her duty to use that role to promote causes. Thank you. [ applause ] with the senate in the august break, well feature become tv programming weeknights in prime time on cspan 2 starting at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. And for the weekends here are a few book tv special programs. On saturday, were live from jackson, mississippi, for the mississippi book festival beginning at 11 30 with decisions on harper lee and the civil war. On saturday, september 5th live from the capital for the 15th annual National Book festival and then former second lady and senior fellow lynne cheney. Book tv on cspan 2. Television for serious readers. More American History tv from marion, ohio. Speakers examine the style and approaches of first ladies from Florence Harding to michelle obama. This was the theme of the annuae warn g. Harding symposium at the Ohio State University at marion. Gary thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Im well and how about you. [ laughter ]e the white house that i served for 37 years is a unique part of our 239 years of american fa history. I was honored and privileged to serve seven president s and firsd families from 1970 through 2007. The president ial history that i have seen is remarkable. A president resigned from side office. And appointed Vice President become an unelected president , e oneterm president who became. More prominent for his activities after he left the white house. A twoterm president who faced down the evil empire. A president who won awar and ino lost his reelection bid. A president impeached and remain in office. And one of the most closely contested president ial elections in our nations history, that permitted me to serve the son of a president that i had previously served. The chief usher is appointed by and works directly for the ho president of the United States and is head of the staff of the executive residence at the white house. I was accountable to the president and the first lady, for the activities that took place in the white house and on its grounds. E my primary charge was to carry out their desires as they relats to three main functions. First and foremost, the executive residence is the homew of the president and his familyt and as such is a place where their privacy is guarded with vigor by those who work there. Rc second, it is the site of th in officialth and ceremonial activities of the presidency, both in the house and on its grounds. And finally, the residence, the grounds, are a museum of our American History. For those of you who may not have had an opportunity to visit the white house, this historical site, this is a place that is visited by over 1 million visitors each year. And this is a cutaway of the und normal tour route where the visitors come in on the ground floor, through the east wing, go through a number of rooms on thr ground floor and then go up thes stairs to the state floor or first floor of the white house. They go through the east room, o the three parlors, the state dining room and then exit through the north portico. I was responsible for administering the executive residence of the white house and directing the 92 members of the resident staff. The staff is comprised of the e administrative ushers office, the curators office, which takes care of the extensive furnishings of a historic nature and all of the furnishings and e paintings of the white house. Pu it also is responsible for the Calligraphy Office which produces the handwritten invitations to white house throg events. The florist shop that provides cut flower arrangements throughout the residence and foe all events. The housekeeping staff. Che the food and beverage preparation and Service Staff which included the executive chn chef, a pastry chef, three assistantan chefs and their kitchen stewards as well as the mater deand six butlers. And without leaving them out, do certainly the maintenance staffu the white house is the consum e consumate, this old house. It includes carpenters, electricians, engineers, furniture handlers and painters an plumbers. The chief usher already supervises the National ParkService Staff of 24 gardners that take care of the 18 acres of grounds and gardens. My staff and i also administered and developed and tracked the expenses for all of these activities. The chief usher establishes the yearly budget for the executiven residence and insi recent year has been approximately g to t 12 million. Presid i was also responsible for y tracking, billing and presentino to the president re and the firs lady, more recently it was the f first lady, each month the billd their food, beverage, drycleaning and personal itemsl used by the family and their eae personal guests. Most people do not realize that the president pays for these expenses out of his own pocket. For your General Information ill give you a brief history oe the white house itself. With the exception of our first president george washington, every president has lived in the house. But please washington was instrumental in the planning for the house. 500 fo on march 14th, 1792, a competition was announced offering a premium of 500 for w medal of a metal of equal s s value to the winning award design for the white house or as it was known then as the president s house. The winner was to be chosen by s george washington. The designs were to be submitted in just four short months. Excuse me. James hobband won the competition on july 16th, 1792, and this design is his presentation and he was also. Hired to supervise the construction of the house. The cornerstone of the white house was laid just three monthl later, on october 13th, 1792. Now for those ofy, you who thinc your forward government cant ea react quickly,sh there is an example that at least it could. President washington died on rsr december 14th, 1799, before the house was completed. D and our first president , john adams, moved into the unfinished house on november 1st, 1800. During the war of 1812, following the british defeat of napoleon in 1814, british troops entered the city of washington on the evening of august 14, caa 1814, burning the public buildings. As they moved through the capital, from the capitol to the white house. After looting thed ex house, th british troops were stationed around the exterior of the home, and at the shot of a single pistol, they were told to throw lighted torched through all of the windows. The furniture had been piled in the center of each of the rooms to ensure a good fire. The interior of the house burne. Rapidly and after a few hours, the fires kmumed everything inside consumed everything inside. But a thunderstorm arose and th cold watersa from the thunderstm put out the final flames and partially saved the exterior walls. The house was pretty much destroyed except some of the t exterior stone work. Gned the treaty of gent, ending the war, was signed on new o february 17th, rl1815. Following Andrew Jacksons victory over the british at the battle of new orleans. Ed to re in the joy of victory, the congress decided to rebuild the president s house and james hobban was hired to rebuild it. President monroe moved into the house in october of 1817. The next major renovation came in 1902. The congress a appropriated 500,000 for the house and the construction of an executive Office Building allowing for tha offices of or the the president to be moved outside of the house and into a separate building. That addition, known today os known then as the executive Office Building, today is known as the west wing. And as somebody asked earlier, no, that is not where the tv show was filmed. After the renovation, public tours were limited to the Entrance Hall and the adjacent n room. G it was president and mrs. Harding who almost immediately after taking office in march of or of 1921, opened the view of the other rooms on the state or first floor of the white house, including the green, blue and red parlors as well as the state dining room. The latest and most extensive renovation of the white house eo cameos during the administratio of president truman. After president roosevelts in 1945, president truman d became acutely aware of the problems with the house. And with the concurrence of the congress, initiated a commission to look into the structural ldi. Integrity of the residence. T, i it waswa determined that it need extensive rebuilding and in fact, as you heard earlier, it was suggested that the structure be torn down. Gov there was a movement to move the seat of the government to the center of the country, which at that time was ohio. President truman was adamant that the original stone walls be saved. A plan w was devised to retain e exterior stone walls and build a concrete and Steel Building , within. The old evid stone walls would be pinned to the new structure, hi therebyle retaining evidence of the original hobban design while providing some modern conveniences and adding two ir subfloors with utility and storage. While that was going on. The president and mrs. Truman moved to the blair house and lived there from 1948 until 1952. That is basically the history of the white house that we see a today. Now i will give you a view from behind the scenes of the of executive residence and a peek into the lives of thehave presis an the first families that i have served. I served the nixon , Un Administration as a member of the Uniformed Division of the secret service. Until the president s resignation on august 9th, 1974s during that time, i was assignen to various posts throughout the white house complex, getting tot know thehe people who worked the and their responsibilities. After the start of the litigation surrounding the watergate breakin and the revolution of the oval office tape system by alexander butterfield, i was one of six officers to have control over er the president ialet papers and tapes after the courts had appointed the secret service as conservators. Soft, kind and gentle, are not often words attached to president nixon. But his kindness was known to those who knew him well. One such individual was a white house doorman by the name of Freddy Mayfield. He worked the Evening Shift from 2 00 until 12 00 mid night and was an avid and suffering long fan of the senator baseball team. Eddy freddy and the president had frequent and long conversations about baseball each evening in the elevator as freddy moved the elevator from the ground floor n to the second floor when the president was going home for dinner. The president also being a greau fan loved their talks. After returning to the executive residence oneam spring afternoo following his trip to the opening day baseball game, the president got in the elevator, throwing his ball, his souvenir ball up and down, the first pitch baseball of the season. Oo freddy asked the president if he might take a look at it. Having become quite close to freddy andall bond of their baseball talks, the president tossed the ball to him and said freddy, you keep this. This will be a memory of our one baseballsi discussions. The on president nixons last day in office i was working in the vici Police Controlty center. The numbers of demonstrators and people in the vicinity of the white house were a constant for concern for the secret service r security and alseso for the senr white house staff. The president had been working r in hisos old executive Office Building office which was across the street from the west wing te and sometime in the early afternoon was preparing to return to the executive residence. Word was passed to us that the d president did noty on want to s anyone. On his last trip from the executive Office Building to th residence and that he was not even going to go through the west wing, which would be his ig normal route. We were directed to have the officer and the press in then presst Briefing Room which was adjacent to the president s path, draw the shades to the ou windowst completely shut and lk the one door that led out on to the driveway. At the prescribed time, the notice was given, the press corp was locked in the Briefing Room and the windows were covered. Since i was working in the Police Control center, immediately we began to receivec telephone calls from the the wa reporters, their Network Chiefs an the Fire Department complaining about the way the oi press were being treated and confined. Re fir thate it was unsafe and there were fire code violations. Within 15 minutes the president returned to the evidence, the d press room doors were unlocked an the shatds were urned to their the shades were returned to their open position and the crisis passed, as a note to history. Upon president nixons departure, the burden of the past few years was removed from the white house with the entry of the ford family. The president and mrs. Ford were two of the most approachable le people you could ever want to meet. In the fall of 1975 i was made aware of a position comingwo available in the ushers officef i had worked for years with the members of the office and was eo to then chief usher rex skelton. I was attracted immediately to the opportunity as i admired the work of the office and the wonderful people who worked in. The executive residence. I applied for the position and was chosen to work there. My first three months of service in the ushers office were spent as an understudy to the other two assistant ushers learning the ways of the first family ani theng s executive residence. The assistant ushers work on a rotating two shift schedule. , a one shift began before the president awoke in the morning with a transfer between shifts taking place at around 2 00 in the afternoon and ending after the president and first lady had retired for the evening. My first introduction to president ford was made by chief usher rex skelton. It took place at the conclusion of my first state dinner, or mr adjacent to the elevator that led to their private quarters. The president was standing and waiting for mrs. Ford who was bidding some of her guests good night. Mrs. Ford was a dancer. The we she was always the last one to leave the floor. Ed in the week following my introduction to the fords, i waa placed in the rotation by myself. At it was a quiet sunday morning. At about 8 00 a. M. , the telephone rang and i answered. The ushers office, gary walters, may i help you. The voice on the other end of the phone was that of president ford. I immediately thought i should stand up. But my knees hit the desk. , goom i listened intently as the president said, good morning, gary. Could you make a note to have someone check my shower. He fact i dont have any hot water. Well after i recovered from the fact that the president didnt have any hot water, i also a reelized that i had never been called by my first name by a wesident before. Knowing that the white house engineers were available to h check out the problem, and thatn the first family was scheduled to go to Church Within the hour, i reply the certainly, mr. President. I will have the engineers checkr the showerch as soon as you and. Mrs. Ford deport for church. The president s answer don absolutely stunned me. He said, oh, dont bother, its sunday and there is really no hurry. It has been that way for a couple of days and i just forgot to tell people. [ laughter ] any way, ive been usings bettys shower. Needle needless to say, as soon as they left for church, we fixed the problem. The residence staff becomes quite close to the first family over the years and that was certainly the case with the fords. One such example was occurred after the installation of the outdoor heated swimming pool. Ske each evening, doorman Freddy Mayfield would jokingly ask the president when he was going to w invite him for a swim. E president ford would laugh and say, oh, freddy, one of these days when we both have just a little bit more time. Late one afternoon, the telephone rang and president s voice said, gary, freddy has been asking about a swim with the president and i think this might be a good time. Would you ask him to meet me in the cabana in 15 minutes. Tell him not to worry about a swimming suit. Hi we can get one of the extras that we keep for friends. Peratu his voice was a bit light and w mischievous as the temperature that november evening was about 30 degrees. With a windchill factor in the teens. I informed freddy of the him president s invitation and added that he better watch to what he asked for in the future. Freddy did go over to the cabana where he and president had a nice swim, much shorter than the president s normal swim. Both returned to the residence laughing and dripping water in their wake. Freddy never forgot his ked president ial swim and told everyone about his experience. He also never asked the president about another joint i swim. Th later he confided in me that he nearly froze getting out of the pool. The inauguration of president jimmy carter on january 20th, 1977, brought three families to the white house. Not only did daughter amy, age seven, move in with the nd flo president and mrs. Carter and occupy traditional bedrooms on the second floor, they also had their two sons chip and jeff ano their wives karen and annette lt occupy suites on the third floor of the executive residence. Karen gave birth to a son, James Earl Carter iv months later ant giving the white house the first infant in many, many decadesch as an Energy Conservation measure the president wanted all of the thermostats in t