Grace Tully

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Grace Tully (9 August 1900 - 15 June 1984) was private secretary to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Grace Tully was born on 9 August, 1900 in Bayonne, New Jersey. Her father was a businessman and a Democratic Party loyalist. She was educated to be a secretary at Grace Institute in New York. She then got a job as secretary to Patrick Hayes, bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.

In 1928 she started working for Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin's wife, when Franklin was running for Governor of New York. Franklin was elected and then Tully started serving as personal secretary Missy LeHand's assistant. She now worked in Albany at Franklin's office.

In 1932, Franklin was elected president, but due to health problems, Tully could not move along with him to Washington until early 1934. Both she and Missy LeHand were important figures for FDR during his presidency. She frequently accompanied him on trips to Hyde Park and Shangri-La (today called Camp David).

Tully took over for LeHand when she fell ill in 1941. She continued working for Franklin Roosevelt until his death in April 1945 in Warm Springs, and she was with him when he died. Then she served as the FDR Foundation’s executive secretary. In 1949 she published her memoirs, FDR: My Boss. From 1955 she worked as secretary to senators Lyndon B. Johnson and, later, Mike Mansfield. She retired ten years later and died in 1984.