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Isabella Hagner

Isabella Hagner

Isabella Hagner, orphaned at 16, supported herself and her younger siblings by putting her society contacts and good handwriting to use in a successful career as a social secretary. Her good humor and discretion endeared her to Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, who employed her as the first salaried White House social secretary. Hagner later recorded memories of her life and White House years in several typescript memoirs, one of which is published for the first time in this issue.

Credit
Collection of the Hagner family

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