Reathel Odum, 97, Trumans’ Discreet Secretary, Dies
Reathel Odum, a bank clerk who was chosen by Senator Harry S. Truman during the Depression to be one of his secretaries and later served in the White House as personal secretary to Bess Truman, died in her hometown, Benton, Ill., on June 6. She was 97.
Miss Odum’s nephew, Richard Odum Hart, said news of her death was not released for several weeks.
In 17 years with the Trumans — including two years chaperoning their daughter, Margaret, when she was making national tours as an aspiring classical singer — Miss Odum became close to the family.
“People have urged me to write a book and I said no,” she said in a 1988 oral history for the Truman Presidential Museum and Library in Independence, Mo. “I don’t know anything that would be tantalizing or gossipy.”
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Miss Odum’s nephew, Richard Odum Hart, said news of her death was not released for several weeks.
In 17 years with the Trumans — including two years chaperoning their daughter, Margaret, when she was making national tours as an aspiring classical singer — Miss Odum became close to the family.
“People have urged me to write a book and I said no,” she said in a 1988 oral history for the Truman Presidential Museum and Library in Independence, Mo. “I don’t know anything that would be tantalizing or gossipy.”