{{Short description|American White House press official}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2019}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Margita White |image = Margita White, Assistant Deputy Director of Communications in the White House.jpg |caption = Margita White in 1972 |office = [[White House Communications Director]] |president = [[Gerald Ford]] |term_start = August 15, 1975 |term_end = July 12, 1976 |predecessor = [[Gerald Lee Warren]] |successor = [[David Gergen]] |birth_name = Ulla Margareta Eklund |birth_date = {{birth date|1937|6|27}} |birth_place = [[Linköping]], [[Sweden]] |death_date = {{death date and age|2002|11|20|1937|6|27}} |death_place = [[Arlington County, Virginia|Arlington, Virginia]], U.S. |party = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] |education = [[University of Redlands]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br>[[Rutgers University–New Brunswick]] ([[Master of Arts|MA]]) }} '''Margita White''' (born '''Ulla Margareta Eklund;''' June 27, 1937 – November 20, 2002) was an American White House press official under Presidents [[Richard M. Nixon]] and [[Gerald R. Ford]].<ref name=":0">{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2002/11/21/margita-white/a30d777f-a4bd-44ba-9332-91033ac78dc5/|title=Margita White|first1=Adam|last1=Bernstein|date=November 21, 2002|newspaper=[[Washington Post]]|archive-date=August 18, 2020|access-date=February 5, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200818124122/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2002/11/21/margita-white/a30d777f-a4bd-44ba-9332-91033ac78dc5/|url-status=live}}</ref> She was the first female [[Communications Director]] serving under President Ford from August 15, 1975 to July 12, 1976.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/files/presidential-libraries/research/transition-interviews/pdf/white.pdf|title=White House Transition Interview on White, Margita, Office of Communications|last=|first=|date=|website=Archives.org|accessdate=February 22, 2017|archive-date=February 17, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170217044849/https://www.archives.gov/files/presidential-libraries/research/transition-interviews/pdf/white.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> She was later commissioner with the [[Federal Communications Commission]] (FCC) and the president of a lobbying group for new television technologies. She was a founding member of Executive Women in Government. White died of cancer on November 20, 2002.<ref name=":0" />
== Early life == Margita White was born Ulla Margareta Eklund in Sweden. She immigrated to the U.S. with her family in 1948 at the age of ten.<ref name=":2">{{cite web|url=https://libraries.psu.edu/about/collections/few-good-women/margita-e-white|title=Margita E. White {{!}} University Libraries|website=libraries.psu.edu|language=en|access-date=February 5, 2017|archive-date=February 5, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205183957/https://libraries.psu.edu/about/collections/few-good-women/margita-e-white|url-status=live}}</ref> After, she grew up in Southern California and was always called Margita.<ref name=":0" />
== Education == White attended the [[University of Redlands]] in California. She started as an economics major, but changed to a government major after spending a semester in Washington, D.C. She graduated magna sum laude in 1959.<ref name=":0" /> It was at the University of Redlands that she decided to devote her life to public service. She continued her studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She was a Woodrow Wilson National Fellow and received her M.A. in political science in 1960.<ref name=":1" />
== Life and career == White worked in both Nixon's 1960 presidential run and Goldwater's 1964 run.<ref name=":0" /> Briefly, between the two campaigns, White lived in Hawaii to marry her husband, Stuart C. White (later divorced) who was stationed there with the Navy. While in Hawaii, White worked for a Senate campaign and in the office for a U.S. House Representative.<ref name=":1" />
In 1968 she tried again and worked in the 1968 Nixon campaign. With his victory, she was appointed to the position of assistant to the Communications Director in the White House. Herbert G. Klein was the White House Communications Director at the time.<ref name=":2" />
She was invited to work as the Assistant Director for Public Information at the U.S. Information Agency in 1973. She worked there for two years until she was appointed as the Assistant Press Secretary under Ford in 1975.<ref name=":2" /> She was assigned to the position with the understanding that she would take over the Communications Office in six months, which she did and became the first female Communications Director in 1975.<ref name=":1" />
In 1976, White was appointed to a two-year term on the Federal Communications Commission. After her term, she moved on to work in the private sector.<ref name=":2" />
White had two children, Suzanne Morgan and Stuart White.<ref name=":0" />
== Controversy == In her first appointment to the White House as Assistant to the Communications Director, White was paid $36,000, which was less than her predecessor. Additionally, she was not given the title of deputy assistant to the president that was the norm for her position. The Ford Administration rejected the claim that both the lesser pay and title were because she was a woman.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/06/19/archives/ford-names-margita-white-assistant-press-secretary.html|title=Ford Names Margita White Assistant Press Secretary|date=June 19, 1975|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331 |access-date=February 5, 2017}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{C-SPAN|14955}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=[[Gerald Lee Warren|Jerry Warren]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[White House Communications Director|White House Director of Communications]]|years=1975–1976}} {{s-aft|after=[[David Gergen]]}} {{s-end}}
{{WHCD}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Margita}} [[Category:1937 births]] [[Category:2002 deaths]] [[Category:American company founders]] [[Category:American women company founders]] [[Category:Deaths from cancer in Virginia]] [[Category:Federal Communications Commission personnel]] [[Category:Ford administration personnel]] [[Category:Nixon administration personnel]] [[Category:White House communications directors]]