by Anne Edwards
Footnotes
*Farkas received her M.A. in psychology from Columbia University in 1932 and had been an instructor at New York University School of Education, 1949-55. She had been personal consultant for Alexander’s Department Store, New York City, 1955-72, president of Dolma Realty Company, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 1955-70, a member of the U.S. Committee to UNESCO, 1964-71. Her husband, George Farkas, was chairman of the board of Alexander’s Department Store, a multimillion-dollar organization.
*Though born in Milton, Massachusetts (1924), Bush had co-founded (1953) the Zapata Petroleum Company and the Zapata Offshore Company based in Houston, Texas, which was his main residence until his election as vice-president in 1980.
*Black was not the first former film star to become an ambassador. John Lodge, after his term as governor of Connecticut, served as U.S. ambassador to Spain (1955-61) and ambassador to Argentina (1969-73).
*Nkrumah lived in exile until 1972, when he died of cancer in Guinea, where he had held power as “co-president” with Sekou Touré for six years.
†Busia had been a visiting professor at Northwestern University, Illinois, 1954; professor of sociology, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague 1959-62; professor of sociology and culture of Africa, University of Leiden 1960-62; director of studies for World Council of Churches, Birmingham, England 1962-64; professor of sociology, St. Antony’s College, Oxford, 1965; and had published many books, The Challenge of Africa (1962) and Africa in Search of Democracy (1967) being perhaps the best known.
*Hadsel was a career diplomat. From 1946-56 he served the Department of State as executive secretary on African affairs. He was first secretary in the American embassy in London, 1957-61; deputy chief, American embassy, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 1961-62; director of inter-Africa affairs, 1963-64; ambassador to Somalia, 1969-71. He retired from foreign service upon departure from Ghana.
*This segment of 60 Minutes was shown on television in the United States on Sunday, February 9, 1975. Judith Martin, television critic of the Washington Post, wrote, “The cheap, obvious, and hilarious trick [the producers] pull is to alternate film of Mrs. Black as U.S. Ambassador in Ghana with film of Miss Temple as li’l sweetums. Wee Shirley goes to bed with her ringlets all spread out on the pillow and lisps a song about growing up and going to a ball in a palace and meeting a prince. Mrs. Black then takes over with her hair stiffly teased, and a mother-of-the-bride type outfit on, walking on a red carpet through marble halls [the Ghana Administrational Building] to present her credentials to the head-of-state [Acheampong]. Another time Mrs. Black boards an airplane to fly to Accra, and then Miss Temple suddenly bounces up and down the plane’s aisle singing about ‘Good Ship Lollipop.’” Despite this, Martin concluded that “by the end of the program, the narrator is a fan, and the viewer will probably be at least wavering.”
*Better security measures were provided for in renovations five years later.
*The major American corporations with offices or plants in Ghana at the time were Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, Johnson’s Wax and the Kaiser Aluminum Corporation.
*Ghanaian descent is traced and inheritance is passed on through the female rather than the male line.
*After Angola failed at an attempt at independence in 1974, twenty thousand Cuban combat troops and more than fifteen hundred Soviet and Eastern bloc advisors arrived on Angolan soil. “The choice Washington faced was to sit by and watch a Marxist government come to power or to step up its support of the rebel armies enabling one of them to make the final push that would establish a pro-Western government. Ford and Kissinger had taken the latter course. The rebels had been given 40 million dollars. The U.S. Congress, wary of another Vietnam-type involvement, was unwilling to confront the Eastern bloc . . . and after long debate it cut off funds [to the rebels].” Several of the African nations, fearing that Marxism would now be planted on their doorsteps, saw the discontinuance of financial support to the rebels as an American betrayal.
*Acheampong was overthrown by his chief of staff, Lieutenant General Frederick W. K. Akuffo, in 1978. The next year, Akuffo was overthrown by thirty-two-year-old Ghanaian Air Force Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings, who had Acheampong and Akuffo executed following a secret trial. “ ‘Action, action, finish them all!’ yelled the crowd as the former heads of state and several other top officials were blindfolded and bound to execution posts.”
18 IN 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt appointed George Summerlin, former minister to Panama, to the newly created office of chief of protocol. Until then, diplomatic courtesy still was based in large measure on precedents and tradition. To avoid the possibility of appointment on a political basis (an intent that changed in later years), the new position was to be filled by an experienced Foreign Service officer with the rank of minister or ambassador. Among many more technical matters, the Department of Protocol was “made responsible for presentation to the President of Ambassadors or Ministers . . . correspondence concerning their acceptability . . . questions regarding rights and immunities of representatives of foreign governments in the United States, arrangements for all ceremonials of a national or international character [at home or abroad] . . . questions concerning customs and other courtesies extended to foreign officials . . . as well as to American officials abroad . . . arrangements of visits of foreign naval vessels and military organizations, the preparation of medals to be conferred and of certain communications from the President to the heads of foreign states.”
Serious complications arose for the Department of Protocol during the period of racial unrest in the early 1960’s. Angier Biddle Duke headed the department during the Kennedy administration, when “about half of the Washington diplomatic corps from 110 nations came from Africa and Asia and could not travel to some areas of the country or look for an apartment safely in Washington without assistance from the Department of Protocol.” At that time, the department was moved to the offices of the secretary of state.
The office of the chief of protocol was now responsible for highly sensitive matters as well as social niceties. Shirley’s job was not that of a social director or a mere minder of manners. With an election due, the chief would also function importantly in the plans for the inauguration.
Her hair trimmed into a smart short bob, she took the oath of office on a Bible held by Charles, on July 20, 1976. President Ford asked if she wished to be referred to as Madam Ambassador. She replied that just Ambassador would be fine, but never Ambassadress, “which sounds more like something a person would be wearing.” From this ceremony, she went directly to her large Spartan office in the center of which stood a massive desk backed by the special blue-and-gold consul flag and formerly occupied by her predecessor Henry E. Catto, Jr., who had been appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Organizations in Geneva. She was the first woman to hold the job, and told reporters she looked forward to “shaking up anything I see that needs shaking up.” An hour later, dressed in a chiffon gown, she sped to the White House for her first official duty—to introduce members of the Washington diplomatic corps at a bicentennial celebration. To the amazement of her associates, not one person was misaddressed nor was any name mispronounced. She had read through the list of guests and memorized it.
Heading a staff of forty-four, she quickly realized the job would entail an enormous amount of administrative work. One of her first assignments was to charter an aircraft for one hundred members of the diplomatic corps to travel to Kansas City, Missouri, in August for a one-day trip to the Republican National Convention (being conducted at Kemper Auditorium). Each ambassador paid $176 for the day trip. “They came back [to Washington] the same night,” Shirley confessed. “We couldn’t find any hotel rooms.” Shirley had whisked the ambassadors, their wives and first secretaries on a “low budget eleven hour tour [of Kansas City] that included a V. I. P. look at bleary-eyed convention delegates in their closing-night cacophony.” It ended at President Ford’s headquarters, where a toast was made with imported Russian vo
dka in iced shot glasses.
Shirley’s charges departed before Ford’s expected nomination was confirmed, but she and Charles returned to Kansas City the next day to join in the president’s victory celebration. They were given a room for the night that “had a White House phone in it,” she remembered. “I said, ‘Oh Charlie, maybe he was going to ask me to be his running-mate and had the phone installed.’ I picked it up and it was disconnected. I’d be curious to know who had the room before me.”
The Democratic National Convention had been held in the mid-July heat of New York City, and the nomination was won by Jimmy Carter, a relatively obscure governor of Georgia who had risen meteorically in a matter of three short months. “We had won the nomination, but the general election was still three months away,” future First Lady Rosalynn Carter recorded. “After the Republican Convention in August, our lead plummeted from a high of 25 points to 8 or 9 points. It was understandable, everyone assured me. Ford was the familiar figure; Carter the unknown . . . it brought everyone back from thinking about where their offices were going to be in the White House!”
When Shirley had accepted her new post, Gerald Ford’s chances of reelection were good. Had this occurred, Shirley almost certainly could have looked forward to a long tenure in Washington. Travel on behalf of his company would keep Charles away a good part of the time, but Shirley had become used to these periods of separation. They sublet a spacious high-rise apartment on Massachusetts Avenue in northwest Washington and decorated it with California furniture and African artifacts. George and Gertrude remained in Woodside. Young Charlie was also at home, with plans to study international relations at a graduate school that fall.* Lori was continuing with her music studies.
Shirley ran her new home with a minimum of outside assistance. She lunched in the State Department cafeteria on cottage cheese, “the only thing she really missed in Ghana.” Her most difficult problem was shared by other women in the Diplomatic Corps and Foreign Service. “They all need wives. The Chief of Protocol’s wife is expected to assist her husband,” Shirley explained. “During arrival ceremonies she is supposed to hold the flowers given to the visiting head of state’s wife by the President’s wife.” She was also expected to take care of the staff and refurbishing of Blair House, the official residence of state visitors. “I have to be my own wife,” Shirley admitted, although she delegated many such tasks to some of the other women on her staff and to the wife of the deputy chief of protocol.
Her attitude toward men straightforward and yet never overbearing, Shirley was especially qualified to be working in a male-oriented, high-executive capacity. She claimed in a proud tone that she had to work harder than a man in the same job—and could do it with more energy and grace, a statement supported by her staff. “Indecision is the thing that drives men against a wall,” Shirley commented. And she was never indecisive.
After the disappointment and personal embarrassment of her last days in Ghana, she was determined to avoid any further such indiscretions. She admitted that one of her most strident critics was her boss, Henry Kissinger. But “I’m durable,” she stated. “I don’t damage easily.”
Her current post precluded any active campaigning on behalf of Ford. As Election Day drew near, Ford’s defeat was a real possibility. The president had lacked the mandate of election. He had held the office only two years, the first spent in a desperate effort to disentangle the administration from Watergate, the second “in a bid to put together a coalition to get himself elected.” One observer notes, “Behind the orderly facade of the Ford White House, there were inconclusive battles for power among rival subordinates which Ford lacked the authority and savagery to end. As a colleague put it, ‘Good old Gerry was too damned good for his own good.’ Ford’s views, on the rare occasions when they emerged, usually turned out to be sensible, but he lacked gravitas. In public, he developed an unfortunate tendency to fall over [a reference to the several times he tripped in public].”
Carter, on the other hand, beamed self-confidence and promised “not only new formulas but effective implementation.” When he won the election by a narrow margin in November, Shirley had good reason to suspect her days as chief of protocol would be numbered because of her zealous connection to Nixon and Ford.
But she had always been more a nationalist than a Republican. To Shirley, it was America’s image, pride and power that were truly important, and she believed that the Republican party was better equipped to achieve these ends. The political part of her nature that had surfaced in the 1960’s had been satiated by the hundreds of campaign speeches she had given in support of her party’s candidates. She had, in fact, made more speeches and appearances on behalf of Richard Nixon than had his wife, Pat, or either of his daughters. Her association with the United Nations, the Multiple Sclerosis Society, environmental committees and wildlife-preservation groups and her years in Ghana had given rise to wider ambitions.
“I don’t think she liked working under Henry [Kissinger],” a staff member comments. “She had what she called an ‘open-door’ policy. We [the staff] were to go into her office and discuss all our problems and gripes. ‘No calls for five minutes’ she would tell her secretary if the subject appeared serious, and you knew she meant five minutes. She liked people to be straightforward with her and she would reply in that same manner, but she never betrayed her own problems or doubts. I never got over the fact that I was asking Shirley Temple for advice and that afterward I was often able to cope with a problem that had previously seemed insurmountable.
“You know, she had a way of chuckling—with her chin tucked in and her eyes wide—that suddenly dissolved the distance of years. There she was, little Shirley, telling gruff old Lionel Barrymore in simple terms how to be happy. It was very disconcerting. She is surprisingly wise and never wishy-washy. And she would never put you down.
“We used to call Charlie ‘the consort.’ He was terribly proud of being ‘Mr. Black.’ No one on her staff thought [her present job] would be the end of her career, least of all Charlie. I suspect he would have liked her to go on to a Cabinet post or even as a vice-presidential candidate.”
Preparations for the Carter inauguration were begun immediately following his election. As tradition dictated for presidential appointees, Shirley had filled out a resignation form giving the new president a free hand to select those he wanted to assign key jobs. But with the arrangements for the inauguration facing her, she had little time to worry about the future. Her main duties were to be in charge of the diplomatic corps present at the ceremony. There would be 126 ambassadors and their spouses plus 25 representatives from the Organization of American States.
“We’ll be putting them on eight different busses to take them to the inaugural ceremonies in the morning, then bring them to Blair House where I’ll be hosting a luncheon,” she explained. “Then we must deliver them to the various inaugural balls that evening.” Laughing, she added, “There’s no way that Mr. Carter will be able to relieve me of my duties before that time.” In December, she met twice with the president-elect and found him “cordial.”
“Sometimes I feel like the oldest living American,” she told a reporter (a reference to the fact that she had worked forty-five of her forty-eight years) as she prepared to return to Woodside for Christmas.
The holiday season was not a happy one for Shirley. Gertrude’s health had continued to fail in recent years, and she now suffered several related, deteriorating illnesses. She died at Stanford University Hospital with Shirley close at hand at 2:15 P.M. on January 1, 1977, at exactly the same hour and day she had been married to George sixty-three years earlier. The time was one of great introspection for Shirley. The imminence of Gertrude’s death had not lessened its shock. Few mothers and daughters had been as close, and the bond had continued throughout the years despite the distances between them and the responsibilities of Shirley’s own family and her career.
Shirley returned to Washington five days later. Less than two w
eeks remained before January 20, the date of the inauguration, the fourth she had thus far attended.* She threw herself into the demanding task before her. “I planned Jimmy Carter’s inauguration,” Shirley declared. “I was involved with the F.B.I., the Secret Service, the local police, the Military District of Washington and everything else, because the Chief of Protocol puts everything together. I think we did a good job. We didn’t know he was going to walk down the middle of the street. We didn’t have that planned. He did that himself.”
This was a reference to President Carter’s instructions to his secret-service driver during the inaugural parade to stop the car so that he and his family could walk the remaining 1.2 miles down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. Carter explained, “I remembered the angry demonstrators who had habitually confronted recent Presidents and Vice-Presidents. Furious over the Vietnam War and with the revelations of Watergate, I wanted to provide a vivid demonstration of my confidence in the people as far as security was concerned, and I felt a simple walk would be a tangible indication of some reduction in the imperial status of the President and his family. . . . People along the parade route, when they saw that we were walking,” Carter wrote in his diary that night, “began to cheer and to weep, and it was an emotional experience for us as well . . . there were gasps of astonishment and cries of ‘They’re walking! They’re walking!’”
A few minutes before the walk had begun, Carter had taken the oath of office “on the bunting-draped, ornate temporary platform at the east front of the Capitol.” Shirley had occupied a prominent seat. The weather was bitter cold, and she did not join the parade to the White House.
Numerous inaugural balls are held to accommodate the many divisions of government. Shirley’s job was to oversee the arrangements for the gala celebration of the foreign diplomatic corps.
