DALLAS, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Dallas, North Carolina, may seem a world away from Washington, D.C. But at the Gaston County Museum an exhibit called “Nell Yates: Woman in the Wing” spotlights a local woman who became a White House staff fixture.
“She wouldn’t say a lot to any of us about their affairs,” said Kelly Privette, Yates’s great-niece.
Her Aunt Nell worked for a staggering seven presidents from 1953 to 1986.
“It started with Eisenhower and went all the way to Reagan,” Privette told Queen City News. “She was the personal assistant, she did not like the word ‘secretary.’”
Yates was more than her job title because she earned their trust with time.
“That’s one of my favorite pictures of her hugging him,” says Privette, pointing at a picture in the museum. “The tearful farewell of President Ford leaving, and he comforts Aunt Nell.”
As we see in the exhibit, she was even the subject of a political cartoon.
Yates was ever-present during the Nixon years.
“He was the first woman to go to China and Aunt Nell went with him,” Privette explained. In 1972, photos were taken at a ping-pong exhibition in China. Next to the first couple, to the far right, you’ll see Yates.
“There she is,” said Privette, pointing at her Aunt Nell off to the side near former First Lady Pat Nixon.
Looking for Nell is like a White House version of “Where’s Waldo?”
Yates was at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue during good times, and the worst of times, including the assassination of JFK.
“She was at the White House,” a loved one says.
“Right and had to arrange for the body to be transported back, and arrange the service,” Privette answered.
The Yates exhibit includes the funeral invitation she received.
Before she died seven years ago at 93, she donated more than a thousand items to the Gaston County Museum.
“And because she was born in Alexis, outside of Dallas, it came here!” Privette said.
“Photos, paraphernalia, pins, pens, you name it,” says curator Alicyn Wiedrich. “She went on to do some great things for some of the most powerful people in the world, and she stayed humble, she was a family woman, and she was just a force to be reckoned with.”
The exhibit documents 33 years in the West Wing. But as comprehensive as it is, loved ones say it doesn’t begin to tell Nell Yates’s story beyond the White House.
“[The exhibit is] great, that’s wonderful,” says niece-in-law Cathy O’Brien. “That’s not the Nell we know and love and miss so much. Because she didn’t talk about her days in the White House.”
Nell was a gourmet cook and loved gardening and golf.
She never had children, but was the greatest aunt ever, inviting Privette to the White House as a little girl.
“’You can go on the White House lawn, don’t embarrass me,’” she told her.
Yates’ family says the way she worked and lived is a lesson for all of us.
“If you would ask her if she was a Republican or a Democrat she would say, ‘I am what the President is.’ It was about the president; it was not about the politics,” Privette says.
“It’s possible to serve in government without making that your entire identity and your entire life,” said O’Brien. “She was a wonderful example of public service.”
“It was about the people,” says Privette. “And if we could all behave that way in today’s society, we would be a lot better off.”
And what Nell Yates didn’t care to talk about too much is now a source of family pride.
“She kept her relationship with the White House and the staff there quiet and she filled her life with all kinds of rich and enjoyable things,” said O’Brien.
“Nell Yates: Woman in the Wing” will be on exhibit through July 5 at the Gaston County Museum.
