Stephen Early

Stephen Early
3rd & 7th White House Press Secretary
In office March 4, 1933 – June 1, 1945
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Theodore Goldsmith Joslin
Succeeded by	J. Leonard Reinsch
In office December 5, 1950 – December 18, 1950
President	Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Charles Griffith Ross
Succeeded by	Joseph Short
United States Deputy Secretary of Defense
In office May 2, 1949 – September 30, 1950
President	Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Charles Griffith Ross
Succeeded by	Joseph Short
Personal details
Born	Stephen Tyree Early (1889-08-27)August 27, 1889
Died	Washington, D.C.

Stephen Tyree Early (August 27, 1889 – August 11, 1951) was a U.S. journalist and government official. He served as White House Press Secretary under Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1945 and again under President Harry S. Truman in 1950 after the sudden death of Charles Griffith Ross. Early served as press secretary longer than any other person.

Career

Early met Franklin D. Roosevelt while covering the 1912 Democratic National Convention as a reporter for the United Press. From 1913 to 1917 Early was the Associated Press correspondent covering the Navy Department, during which time his acquaintance with Roosevelt and Louis Howe grew.

After serving in World War I with an Infantry Regiment and the Stars and Stripes he returned to the United States and was asked by Roosevelt to be the advance man for the 1920 Vice Presidential campaign. After the election, Early returned to the Associated Press, and in 1927 became the Washington representative of Paramount News, a newsreel company at the time.

White House Press Secretary (Roosevelt and Truman Administrations)

After the election of 1932, Franklin Roosevelt asked him to serve as one of the three White House Secretaries,responsible for press relations. Early held that post throughout the entire Roosevelt years, leaving government service June 1, 1945. As press secretary he served as spokesman and troubleshooter for the president and maintained an open-door policy with White House correspondents. Having been a reporter, he understood the news business and did his best to accommodate it. Early also helped persuade the White House Correspondents Association to issue press credentials to Harry McAlpin of the National Negro Publishers Association. In 1944 McAlpin became the first African American reporter to attend presidential press conferences.

Commercial and Defense appointments

In 1945 he became Vice President of Pullman, Inc..

He returned to the government as Under Secretary, later Deputy Secretary of Defense from April 1949 to June 1950.

White House Press Secretary (2nd appointment to Truman Administration)

In December 1950 Early was briefly Press Secretary to President Truman, filling in after the sudden death of Charles G. Ross.

Death

Early died at George Washington Hospital on August 11, 1951. He had suffered a heart attack a week prior, and despite signs of recovery, had a turn for the worse. It was reported that he died at about one in the afternoon. Survivors included the former Helen Wrenn, whom he married in 1921, two sons and a daughter. Harry Truman issued a statement calling him "an outstanding newspaper man" and "always on the side of President Roosevelt." Defense Secretary George Marshall said in a statement that he was "very distressed" at the news of his death and he "served his country faithfully for many years." The full statements and other information on his life can be found in his New York Times obituary, printed on August 12, 1951.

In 1969, his widow donated his papers to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, where they could be accessed by the public.

References

• Linda Lotridge Levin, The Making of FDR: The Story of Stephen Early, America's First Modern Press Secretary (2007)
• Graham J. White, FDR and the Press (1979)

External links

• Stephen T. Early Papers

Political offices
Preceded by Theodore Goldsmith Joslin	White House Press Secretary 1933-1945	Succeeded by J. Leonard Reinsch
Preceded by Charles G. Ross	White House Press Secretary 1950	Succeeded by Joseph Short
Preceded by (position created)	United States Deputy Secretary of Defense 1949-1950	Succeeded by Robert A. Lovett