Decorating The White House for the Kennedys

By Susan Crater, Sister Parish January 20, 2025

Decorating the White House for the Kennedys

"Of course, when a newspaper article proclaimed: "KENNEDY PICKS A NUN TO DECORATE THE WHITE HOUSE", Sister‘s office was never the same. At that point, she was alone, with only one assistant decorator and two additional staff people working for her at 22 E. 69th St. All of a sudden, she was in the spotlight, working for the most talked about couple of the time. From her point of view, she was there to make the White House a place where a young family could live. Per Sister, everything had to be 'appropriate', so when she got her first look at the White House, she was appalled. The White House, as it appeared during the Eisenhower administration, did not look the way, nor was it run in the manner, a house of the statue was supposed to be. The first problem was that the White House budget was minimal. For example, there was no money allocated for alcohol at state functions. There were so few funds allocated for fresh flowers that the ones Leticia Baldridge saw on a tour while the Eisenhowers were still in residence 'wouldn’t be fit for the cooks, quarters' as she put it. On top of the lack of basic necessities, many of the rooms were neglected and lackluster, furnished with department store furniture and cheap hotel style objects. For Sister and Jackie, the first order of business was to make the private quarters cozy and attractive for Jackie‘s husband and small children. - "- Susan Crater

"Jackie chose Mrs. Parrish because she knew she was a woman of quality and taste and that was very important to her. They had already worked together on the Kennedy‘s Georgetown house. Jackie felt comfortable with her. They were from the same social group. They knew the same people. That’s always helpful too. You can gossip while you work. Sister had a tremendous sense of what was proper and refined. Her voice was intimidatingly refined. She was concerned with making it a house where a young family could live with taste, which would remind them of what they’d had before: elegant, attractive and warm, warm, warm. I’ve been to the White House before several times, and I was always in all of it. In my mind, the White House could not be wrong because it was the President‘s house. I just couldn’t find fault with it. But then, I realized it was all of our jobs to find fault with it, so we could make it better. That was when I realized all of the fault that it did have. I had a lot of experience by the time I went to the White House. I was trained in Paris and learned about foreign service, diplomacy, protocol, and entertaining. It was the best training I could ever have received. At the White House, I used all that I’d learned. As far as the running of the White House--the logistics of making people happy and trying to balance the family and the friends who couldn’t get to Jackie--that was really my job, to balance and juggle all of that. You had to pick up whatever you saw that needed to be done. You just did it. You didn’t even ask questions. Everyone was on tiptoe the whole time. The house had been run like the military because the Eisenhowers and, before then, the Trumans were both military families. Also because of the war, there had been a military feeling." - Letitia Baldrige

"It was alarming. The first time we went there, the first thing we were shown by Jackie was how the televisions were marked by large 'his and hers' signs. It was odious and yet pathetic, because the Eisenhower’s were terribly nice people. They just didn’t know about houses. Jackie must’ve really needed someone like Sister, who was so practical."- Susan Mary Alsop

"My first trip to the Kennedy‘s new home began at 5 o’clock in the morning the day before the inauguration. The car had been loaded the night before with three, large blue duffel bags, stuffed with swatches and samples marked 'White House.' Before I left, Harry argued that I shouldn’t drive, that the weather report looked bad, that somebody else could drive the same post to Washington. I simply waved goodbye as cheerfully as I could. I felt very responsible for the contents of those duffel bags and I was determined to deliver them personally.

Mrs. Green, my secretary and office manager, drove with me as far as Baltimore, where she would be visiting her parents. I had to stop in Farhill to leave Yummy, my beloved Pekingese, in the kennels. It was the first time that I had not taken him with me on a job, but when I thought of the confusion of the inauguration, and of Jackie‘s cat, I concluded that it might be better to go without him. Jackie‘s cat was bigger than Yummy, and more aggressive.

We had not gone more than half an hour after dropping off Yummy when the snow began to fall. Harry was right, I thought as the snow began to accumulate on the windshield and I found myself having to strain my eyes just to keep the road ahead. It soon turned into the most powerless trip that anyone could’ve taken. I had no control over my car, nor did the other people on the road. There was accident after accident every half mile. Poor Mrs. Green was in a panic as we slithered ahead in the left lane, passing hundreds of stalled cars. She had only to look at the weight of my knuckles as I gripped the wheel to see that I was just as panicked as she was. We managed to get to Baltimore and when I dropped her off at a service station she begged me not to go on. But, by now, I decided I was on a crucial mission, and I was determined to get through. The miles between Baltimore and Washington were a nightmare. I don’t know how many times you landed in a ditch or spun around, ending up facing backward. My main worry was not to turn upside down with everything in the car marked “White House"- Sister Parish

"When I finally reached the approaches to Washington, everything in the road had come to a standstill for miles. All I could think of was how much some of my friends in Maine would appreciate this sight--the nations capital brought to its knees by one blizzard. Since no one was going anywhere, I abandoned my car briefly and dashed into a drugstore to call my daughter Apple. Her husband had just been made a clerk in the Supreme Court, and they were living in Washington at the time. It was then 10:30 and I was hungry, panicked, drinking, and in tears. Two hours later, I saw my son-in-law walking toward me. The traffic had moved an inch. There was nothing to do but leave the car locked in the curb. We could not carry the White House with us.

It never occurred to me to call Jackie for help just as it had never occurred to me to ask her for a chauffeur to deliver her materials to Washington. Yet I knew how important my mission was to her, how anxious she was to pour over those wonderful things in my duffel bags. I had all the colors, the materials, and the new blueprints to make the White House livable, and I knew that as far as she was concerned, this was her first order of business as our new First Lady.

Apple gave me a bed and I managed to steady my nerves and even get a short bit of sleep before setting out at 4 o’clock that morning to retrieve my car and its precious cargo. Enlisted to help was Sumner Wells, who we had planned to stay with during the inauguration. He had the rank I thought was needed to get my car out of the snow and into a safe, convenient garage. Even with his assistance, it took another two hours to get the car moving again. "- Sister Parish

Inauguration day was bitterly cold, and the snow had made transportation to Washington very problematic. But somehow, Harry managed to fly in, and I was excited and deeply moved as we made our way to the ceremony. Jackie and the President had arranged wonderful seats for us, and I clearly remember how thrilled I felt as I realized that the Senator would be President in just a few minutes. Some of our friends spotted us and they looked an astonishment at the Parishes in such a choice spot. Anyone who knew us knew us as fervent Republicans! I certainly wasn’t feeling Republican or Democrat or anything but a proud American that day. My heart went out to those two beautiful young people. The cold was penetrating, but all any of us felt was exhilaration.

Jackie and Douglas Dylan had arranged for us to have front row seats in a balcony at the treasury building via inaugural parade. As the parade went by, the excitement was intense. At last, I could see the Presidents car, with the president sitting high up on the backseat, and Jackie sitting proudly beside him on the seat itself. Suddenly, she spotted me, and she blew a kiss and her words to the bewildered president reached as clear as a bell. That's Sister, she said, waving enthusiastically to me. I was feeling very special as I waved back.

Jackie had kindly sent us invitation invitations to the inaugural balls and some special receptions preceding them, but there Harry drew the line. 'Please ,'he said as generously as he could, 'I will do almost anything for you, but please, I am Republican. No balls.' Instead we had a delightful dinner at Apple‘s house with Diana Vreeland."- Sister Parish