Frances Spatz Leighton, 87; writer chronicled D.C. lives

Frances Spatz Leighton, a prolific writer and journalist who made a career chronicling the lives of those who work backstage, backstairs or in backrooms in official Washington, died April 6 of congestive heart failure in Arlington, Va. She was 87.

Leighton wrote more than 30 books and countless articles on subjects such as the White House chef during the Eisenhower years, Jacqueline Kennedy’s dressmaker and personal secretary, the House of Representatives’ doorkeeper for 42 years (William “Fishbait” Miller) and White House dogs.

She began carving out her journalistic beat shortly after arriving in Washington during World War II. Among the many freelance articles she wrote were profiles of a Washington woman who “prayed” herself thin and an Ohio-born grandmother who was the official keeper of the Great Seal of the United States.

Many of Leighton’s books were of the “with” or “as told to” variety, including “My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House” (1961). Written with Lillian Rogers Parks, a seamstress and maid who worked in the White House from the beginning of the Hoover administration in 1929 to the end of the Eisenhower years in 1961, the book spent 26 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and became the basis of a nine-part NBC miniseries in 1979.

When the book came out, it so alarmed the incoming first lady that she ordered all White House domestic employees to sign a pledge that they wouldn’t write about their White House experiences.

Jacqueline Kennedy’s personal secretary for 12 years, Mary B. Gallagher, waited until 1969 to write her book, after Kennedy became Jacqueline Onassis. That book was “My Life With Jacqueline Kennedy.”

“Fran was such fun to work with and so conscientious,” said Gallagher, who had stored away a 700-page manuscript of her reminiscences for her two sons to read when they grew up. When she felt free to tell her story, she sought out Leighton at the National Press Club.

Leighton occasionally wrote books about the rich and famous, including “The Pat Nixon Cookbook” (1960), with recipes for tamale pie and peppermint stick cake; “In the Footsteps of John Paul II” (1980), with John Szostak; “June Allyson” (1982), with the actress; and “The Search for the Real Nancy Reagan” (1987).

Leighton was born Frances Ornstein on a dairy farm in Geauga County, Ohio, and attended Ohio State University. She dropped out of school three weeks before graduation and moved to Washington.

She leaves no immediate survivors. Her husband, retired Air Force Col. Kendall King Hoyt, died in 2001.