Bess Abell

The Secret Service called Bess Abell the "Iron Butterfly." As White House social secretary under President Lyndon Johnson, she combined Southern charm with steely determination, organizing state dinners, receptions and, most memorably, the White House weddings of both Johnson daughters: Luci in 1966 and Lynda in 1967. Few people have shaped the social life of the White House as thoroughly as she did.

She was born Bess Clements on June 2, 1933, in Evansville, Indiana, before dawn, according to the time astrologers have recorded. Her father, Earle Clements, was a Kentucky politician who served as a congressman, governor and United States senator, and her mother, Sara, was a town postmaster. Gemini holds her Sun along with Mercury and Venus, all three in the second house. Gemini is sociable, quick and communicative, and Venus there adds charm and an instinct for hospitality. The second house concerns resources and values, and a Gemini cluster there describes someone whose talents lie in connecting people and organizing information.

With Taurus on the Ascendant, she came across as calm, gracious and steady. Taurus appreciates beauty and comfort, which suited someone responsible for the elegance of White House entertaining.

Her Moon is in Virgo, in the sixth house of detail and service, alongside Mars, Jupiter and Neptune in Virgo in the fifth house. Virgo is precise, practical and detail-oriented. A Virgo Moon in the sixth describes someone emotionally fulfilled by doing a job perfectly, and social secretaries live or die by details: seating charts, guest lists, menus and protocol.

She studied political science at the University of Kentucky, graduating in 1954, and married the attorney Tyler Abell the same year. In 1960 she volunteered for the Democratic campaign and worked closely with Lady Bird Johnson, who later brought her to the White House. In 1965 she helped organize the White House Festival of the Arts.

Saturn, retrograde in Aquarius, occupies her tenth house, where public service shows, describing serious, disciplined service in a public institution. Aquarius is progressive, and in 1974 Abell organized a "Counter-Gridiron" party for women journalists who were excluded from Washington's exclusive Gridiron Club; the next year, the club admitted women.

She later founded an event-planning and public relations firm and served from 1977 to 1981 as an executive assistant to Joan Mondale, wife of Vice President Walter Mondale.

Pluto in Cancer and Uranus in Aries add intensity and independence. She died on October 9, 2020, in Potomac, Maryland. The Gemini planets made her a gifted host; the Virgo Moon made her a perfectionist.