Stone Ridge Receives Significant Bequest from the
Estate of Helen Nicholson McCain Smith ‘37

Alumna Helen Nicholson McCain Smith ’37 died on April 9, 2004 at the age of 84 at her home in Washington DC. She was a trusted aide and press secretary to First Lady, Pat Nixon during the turbulent Watergate years.

According to the Washington Post… “Mrs. Smith traveled with the first lady, served as her top spokeswoman, counseled her on public appearances and developed a close bond with the Nixon daughters, Tricia Nixon Cox and Julie Nixon Eisenhower. One of her most difficult tasks was maintaining the delicate balance between preserving as much as possible of the first family's privacy while fulfilling inquiries from the media.

“In the summer of 1974, as calls for President Richard M. Nixon's resignation heightened, pressure mounted in the media to hear from his family about the scandal. Mrs. Smith arranged a news conference in May of that year for Julie Nixon Eisenhower and her husband, David, in the East Garden of the White House.

“Despite a highly charged atmosphere in Washington, Mrs. Smith developed a reputation for working well with the media, according to reporters who covered the White House at the time, including longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas. Part of it stemmed from her belief that the media should not be treated as adversaries, a former aide once said of her. Quiet and self-effacing, she was known to return reporters' phone calls quickly and provide honest, thorough answers.”

"She was a great asset to Pat Nixon," Thomas said. "Press secretaries are often not attuned to what the press needs, but she knew the news business. You knew you could trust her."
Born in New York, Mrs. Smith was the daughter of prominent Washingtonian Helen Nicholson Crean, a Major in the United States Marine Corps and Herbert T.J. Crean, a British Army Major. She spent her childhood in Washington and London. After her parents divorced, she returned to Washington and entered Stone Ridge at “1719” graduating in 1937.

She married McCain “Mack” Smith, a young ensign in 1943. After his death in a training accident at Lakehurst Naval Base in New Jersey the following year, she moved to Honolulu to be with her mother who was stationed there with the women’s branch of the Marine Corps. She never remarried.

Returning to Washington in 1950, Mrs. Smith signed on as a secretary in the Washington bureau of the New York Daily News. In 1968, friend and former colleague, Gerry Van der Heuvel , asked her to join the White House press office. “It was a week before Julie’s wedding”, remembered Mrs. Smith in an interview for Parade magazine in 1974. “I wasn’t certain I wanted to leave the News. After all, I had been with them for 18 years, so I took a temporary leave of absence.” She stayed with Mrs. Nixon until the President’s resignation in 1974.

“She brought a sense of class to the bureau,” said Gwen Gibson, a national reporter who worked with Mrs. Smith at the New York Daily News. “She was very classy. There was a lot of interest in a book about her years with Pat Nixon. But she would never do it. She was totally loyal.”

After she left the White House she went to London to work as an assistant to Elliott Richardson, named U.S. ambassador to England and returned later to the United States to work as a spokeswoman for James B. Edwards, the Secretary of Energy.

A woman of keen wit and uncommon grace, Mrs. Smith had many, many friends.

In her will, Helen McCain Smith left a generous bequest to the Agnes Barry Scholarship Fund at Stone Ridge. During her extraordinary career, she never forgot her years at “1719” and the distinctive Sacred Heart traditions such as white gloves, primes and ribbons. As one of the first Alumnae Association Presidents, Helen helped create and form many of the Alumnae traditions and events that are held today. She was honored along with many other Alumnae Directors at a Thanksgiving Liturgy in celebration of Stone Ridge’s seventy-five years in Washington in October 1997 (Intercom/Alumnae News magazine, Vol. 29, No. 3, Winter 1998).

Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart honors Mrs. Helen Nicholson McCain Smith and her remarkable life, a life reflecting the philosophy of Stone Ridge and the Goals for Sacred Heart Schools everywhere. We are humbly grateful for this philanthropic legacy which will help to provide for future generations of Stone Ridge scholars.