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The future President hired Miss Woods as his secretary in 1951, shortly after he moved to the Senate. She has been his indispensable office aide ever since, through all the crises, through all the winning and losing campaigns, the out-of-office years in California and New York in the 1960s, the official trips to South America, Western Europe, the Soviet Union and China. More than anyone outside his immediate family, Rose Mary knew what Nixon was thinking. She knew who was welcome on the telephone, which guests should be invited (or not invited) to the White House church services or to a party.
Though Miss Woods uncomplainingly followed Nixon to California and New York in his years out of office, friends doubt that she was very happy in that period. "I used to go to see Nixon at his New York law office regularly," says one. "And there was Rose, stuck away in a little cubbyhole office, typing his letters. She was really unhappy—she loved to have old friends stop in and gossip about everything that was going on in politics." The President's comeback, like all his ups and downs, was a deeply felt personal triumph for Miss Woods. Seated in the House gallery as he delivered his first State of the Union message in 1969—which she had typed for him—she savored the moment. "All of a sudden, there he was—and there I was," she later told friends.
Like many a wise secretary, she has influenced her boss by telling him —sometimes with an informal remark, sometimes with a frown or a smile —what people, publications or even policies she likes. But Nixon's politics are her politics. "She is a totally devoted servant," says a longtime Nixon observer. "She would have been just as devoted to Richard Nixon if he had run on a Democratic or Socialist ticket." Loyalty pays, of course. She was one of the few Nixon aides ever to win a battle against Haldeman. When the White House Chief of Staff in 1969 tried to move her out of an office that opened directly into the Oval Office, she promptly—and successfully—went over his head and maintained her access.
Co-workers of Mis Woods are unanimous in their high regard for her. "She is, without question, one of the most decent persons on the White House staff," says a former colleague. "In a group of hard-boiled types, who then prided themselves on their superefficiency, she had heart and warmth, and she would go out of her way to help you out on a problem."
Great Girl. Unmarried, Miss Woods dotes on nephews and nieces, both her own and the two whom she has informally adopted, Julie and Tricia. On trips abroad she and Pat Nixon have extended wardrobes by exchanging clothes (both are size 10), and she often dines with the Nixon