Nell Yates served U.S. presidents for over 30 years. She saw more than a few very important historical events, including . . .
1963: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. After this tragedy, the President’s body had to be moved back to Washington, D.C. Mrs. Yates made the plans.
1969: the first Moon landing. Mrs. Yates owned a written record of the communication between President Richard Nixon and the Apollo 11 astronauts. Did Mrs. Yates make this call? We don’t know for sure. But she was working for the White House at the right time. She had access to the President. She placed many, many other calls for the President. A job such as this historic call would likely have fallen to her. Plus, she owned the written record. So Mrs. Yates almost surely was the first person to call the Moon!
1972: President Richard Nixon’s trip to China. President Nixon met with China’s Communist Chairman Mao Zedong. Mrs. Yates made those plans too. She kept a copy of them. She also visited China with Chief of Staff Alexander Haig the January before to prepare for the President’s visit. She and Mr. Haig’s assistant, Muriel Hartley, were some of only a very few American women to enter mainland China in about 40 years.
