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American writer, editor and White House Press Secretary From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jonathan Worth Daniels (April 26, 1902 – November 6, 1981) was an American writer, editor, and White House Press Secretary. He was a founding member of the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors, serving from 1940 until 1950.[1] For most of his life, he worked at The News & Observer, and later founded The Island Packet.
Jonathan Daniels | |
|---|---|
Daniels in 1921 | |
| 4th White House Press Secretary | |
| In office March 29, 1945 – May 15, 1945 | |
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman |
| Preceded by | Stephen Early |
| Succeeded by | Charlie Ross |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Jonathan Worth Daniels April 26, 1902 Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Died | November 6, 1981 (aged 79) Hilton Head, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Bridgers Lucy Billing Cathcart |
| Children | 4 daughters |
| Education | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (BA, MA) Columbia University |
Jonathan Worth Daniels was the son of Josephus Daniels and Addie Worth Bagley Daniels. He attended Centennial School in Raleigh from 1908 to 1913. When his father became United States Secretary of the Navy in 1913, the family moved to Washington, D.C., where he studied at the John Eaton School from 1913 to 1915, and St. Albans School from 1915 to 1918. Daniels attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and graduated in 1921 with a B.A. He continued at UNC for graduate school, earning an M.A. in English in 1921. As a student in Chapel Hill, he edited The Daily Tar Heel and participated in the Carolina Playmakers.[2]
Daniels passed the North Carolina bar exam despite failing out of Columbia University Law School, but never practiced law.[3] In 1930, he was awarded a year-long Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction, which he spent in France.[4] Years later, his daughter Lucy Daniels would also receive a Guggenheim for fiction, in 1957.[5]
After World War II began, Daniels went into government service, first as assistant director of the Office of Civilian Defense and later as one of six administrative assistants for President Franklin D. Roosevelt (who had worked under Josephus Daniels during World War I). In March 1945, less than one month before his death, Roosevelt named Daniels his press secretary, and he continued in the position temporarily under President Harry S. Truman. Daniels' 47-day term serving as White House Press Secretary was the shortest of any White House Press Secretary [2][6][7][3] until that of Jerald terHorst, who was Gerald Ford's first Press Secretary for 31 days.
Daniels returned to The News & Observer in 1947 and became its editor in 1948, upon the death of his father.[2]
In 1966, he revealed the affair between Roosevelt and Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd in his book The Time Between the Wars.[8] He died in 1981.
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