Evening star., 1952-10-01
Society News:
New Vice President
To Be f Entertained
Bolivian Official Will Join Wife;
Parties Given by Chiefs of Missions

five receptions and four or five
dinners before Ash Wednesday. 1t
would seem foolish for President
and Mrs. Truman to start a pro-
gram which they will not be in a
position to finish.
President and Mrs. Truman gave
Ia series of State receptions in May
after they returned to the rebuilt
White House and these festivities
have taken the place of the more
formal functions for the coming
season.
Announces Retirement
Mrs. James M. Helm, social Sec
retary at the White House for the
past 20 years, announced the omis-
sion Of State functions yesterday
at her first press conference of
the autumn. She also told women
reporters that she plans to retire
from her present post on Jauary
20 but Of course will remain in
Washington and at her home, The
Briars. near Boyce. Va. She dis
played the completed gift the
members of her press conference
presented to her last spring be-
fore she went to The Briars for
the summer.
The gift is a coffee table of
mahogany on the top of which is
the plaque like those used at the
Executive Mansion for the seat
ing Of guests at luncheon and
dinner. The lettering of the in
Scription was done by Mr.. Adrian
Tolley of the White House staff
and the table was built by the
White House craftsman, Mr..
Charles H. Shepherd-both as
signments having been filled after
hours.
Mrs. Helm will take the table to
The Briars where it will be placed
in the room with her autographed
photographs. Among these are the
three Presidents and their wives
she has served at the White House,
Dowager Queen Mary and the
Queen Mother Elizabeth of Eng
land. These were presented to
her when she was abroad with
President and Mrs. Woodrow Will
son and while Queen Mother
Elizabeth was visiting in this
country during the Franklin De-
lano Roosevelt administration.
Lived Here Mony Years
Formerly Miss Edith Benham,
Mrs. Helm has lived in Washing
ton most of her adult years and
when Miss Isabella Hagner, who
was Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt's
secretary and also the first Mrs.
Wilson's. decided to marry, Miss
Benham was selected as her sue
cessor. Mrs. Helm had not known
Mrs. Woodrow Wilson before going
to the White House but they have
remained close personal friends
through the years.
Mrs. Helm first knew Mrs.
Eleanor Roosevelt as a girl in her
early teens during a summer visit
OF Mrs. Helms near Hyde Park.
But they became good friends
during their return trip together
from Europe after World War I.
The trip across the Atlantic took
IL days and President and Mrs.
Wilson, and Assistant Secretary of
the Navy and Mrs. Roosevelt had
tea together almost every day.
Mrs. Helm was a member of the
Wilson party. When Mrs. Roose-
velt came to the White House
some years later she called to
Mrs. Helm for aid in the social
affairs of the Executive Mansion
where the latter has been ever
since.
Mrs. Truman's schedule as given
out yesterday by Mrs. Helm is
moderately busy for this season
Of the year. She did not accom-
pany the President on his political
speech-making trip as she had
agreed to receive members of a
number of organizations. She
could not put them off and did
not wish to cancel them so she
has remained in Washington
while daughter Margaret went
with her father,