WASHINGTON - Letitia Baldrige, the social secretary to first lady Jacqueline Kennedy who later became known as a "doyenne of decorum" and chief arbiter of good manners in modern America, died Oct. 29 at a nursing facility in Bethesda, Md. She was 86.
She had severe osteoarthritis with cardiac complications, said Mary M. Mitchell, a collaborator of hers.
In an 1978 profile, Time magazine described Baldrige as a "superbly energetic amalgam of feminist and Tasteful Lady." Decades before women talked about "having it all," and at a time when many of her female colleagues were afforded few professional opportunities, she embarked on a career that went from diplomacy to the White House to the top levels of business.
Discourtesy and arrogance were not requirements for a successful career, she would later advise executives in her role as a maven of etiquette.
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"For every rude executive who makes it to the top," she wrote in her "Complete Guide to Executive Manners" (1985), one of her numerous guides to politesse, "there are nine successful executives with good manners."
The daughter of a Republican congressman from Nebraska, Baldrige graduated from Vassar College in 1946 and began a career in the 1950s with the State Department.
She was sent to Europe, where under the formal title of social secretary, she was an adviser to David K.E. Bruce, the U.S. ambassador to France; and Clare Boothe Luce, the U.S. ambassador to Italy.
Before joining the Kennedy White House in 1960, Baldrige was the public-relations director - and reportedly the first female executive - at Tiffany & Co. She later founded and ran Letitia Baldrige Enterprises, a public relations and marketing firm, in Chicago, New York and Washington.
Since the late 1970s, she wrote more than a dozen volumes of memoirs and books on etiquette, notably her updated version of "The Amy Vanderbilt Complete Book of Etiquette" (1978).
But she was perhaps best known for her years in the Kennedy White House, where she helped create and polish the enduring Camelot image of romance, elegance and sophistication.
The first lady was a friend from their days at the private Miss Porter's School in Connecticut.
As Jacqueline Kennedy's social secretary, Baldrige oversaw the glamorous social gatherings and state dinners for which the administration was known.
Baldrige was credited with helping arrange for a portable stage in the White House East Room where the Kennedys hosted jazz concerts, Shakespeare performances, ballets, musicals and opera. Baldrige issued many of the invitations to those events.
Baldrige left the White House in 1963. "I had had it," she wrote of the exhausting hours and the demands of the job.
She returned within several months to help the first lady plan her husband's funeral and later wrote that her "years with Jackie remain forever front and center."
Baldrige also worked as a consultant to first ladies Lady Bird Johnson, Patricia Nixon and Nancy Reagan.
