July 3, 2021

Like so many Americans, Myra Gutin remembers tuning into Jackie Kennedy’s televised White House tour with her parents in 1962. Gutin was only eight years old as she watched the first lady welcome viewers into the president’s home.

“And I just remember, as a kid, just being blown away by it,” Gutin now says. “But I think, truthfully, I was more blown away by Mrs. Kennedy — because she was a huge celebrity.”

Decades after that initial fascination with the president’s wife, Gutin is the founding president of the newly-launched First Ladies Association for Research and Education, or FLARE — which bills itself as first formal professional association dedicated to the study of American first ladies. The association seeks to pull together a variety of professionals, from scholars to archivists to first ladies’ staff, to learn more about the role that first ladies have played in American history.

Read more:

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/03/flare-first-ladies-profile-497526