Speakes to Quit Press Job, Join Merrill Lynch

White House spokesman Larry Speakes announced Thursday that he will resign from his post to become senior vice president for communications of Merrill Lynch & Co., the giant Wall Street investment firm.

Speakes, who was thrust into the post on March 30, 1981, when White House Press Secretary James S. Brady was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt on President Reagan, has served as chief spokesman longer than any other person since World War II, with the exception of James C. Hagerty, who was presidential spokesman during the two terms of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Administration.

Although Brady has retained the title of press secretary, Speakes became chief spokesman and was given the title of principal deputy press secretary.

The 47-year-old Mississippian, whose annual White House pay is $75,100, is expected to make a six-figure salary in the executive position with the giant Wall Street firm.

“If I could write my own epitaph, I’d like it to read: ‘He told the truth, always,’ ” said Speakes, who engaged in daily jousts with reporters covering the White House and claimed to have presided over about 2,000 news briefings.

Speakes said he would begin working for Merrill Lynch on Feb. 1, leaving the period until then to work with a successor, who has not been named.

Reagan, in a letter to Speakes, said: “Under the most trying circumstances, you stepped into one of the nation’s most demanding jobs and have always been an articulate, honest and respected voice for our Administration.”

Shortly after Speakes announced his resignation, the unrelated departures of two other White House figures--drug abuse adviser Carlton Turner and White House physician T. Burton Smith, were also announced.

No reason for Turner’s resignation was given. Smith said he was leaving to tend to “family business,” Speakes said.