Selwa Roosevelt

Selwa “Lucky” Roosevelt is best known for her role as Chief of Protocol of the United States from 1982 to 1989. She also served as the longtime Chairman of the Blair House Foundation, where she led the major restoration and refurnishing of the historic home that functions as the President's guesthouse.

After graduating from Vassar College in New York, Mrs. Roosevelt pursued a career in journalism and wrote a column "Diplomatically Speaking" for the Washington Star. She covered the White House, State Department, embassies, and historic homes, and was able to get the first interview with Jacqueline Kennedy after her marriage to Jack.

In 1982, Mrs. Roosevelt was invited to take the position of Chief of Protocol by Nancy Reagan and Mike Deaver. She organized over 1,000 visits of world leaders to the United States.

She is also author of Keeper of the Gate, a behind-the-scenes look at the Reagan White House.

Articles by this Author

Stormy Weather for Queen Elizabeth, November/December 2022 | Vol. 68, No. 6

Rain put a damper on Queen Elizabeth II's 1983 trip to California.

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Kai Bird is a historian and Executive Director of Leon Levy Center for Biography at the City University of New York. He is best known for writing about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Vietnam War, US-Middle East relations and biographies of political figures. Bird is the author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize, and The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames, a New York Times bestseller. His most recent book is The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter.

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