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Jody Powell

Jody PowellAKA Joseph Lester Powell, Jr.

Born: 30-Sep-1943
Birthplace: Cordele, GA
Died: 14-Sep-2009
Location of death: Cambridge, MD
Cause of death: Heart Failure

Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Government
Party Affiliation: Democratic

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Jimmy Carter's Press Secretary

During Jimmy Carter's campaign for Governor of Georgia, Jody Powell served as the candidate's driver and advisor. After the election, he was made Press Secretary, a position he kept until Carter left the White House in 1981. More than a typical Press Secretary, Powell was highly trusted by Carter and became intimately involved with major decisions of the administration. The first crisis of the Presidency was the matter of OMB Director Bert Lance, under investigation for bank dealings prior to assuming office. Lance was personal friend both to Carter and Powell, but by September 1977, the amount of distraction arising from the matter became untenable, and Lance resigned. He was later cleared of all charges.

Throughout the administration, Jody Powell and Hamilton Jordan were Carter's closest advisors. Carter once famously told a reporter, "Jody Powell knows me better than anyone else except my wife." The Bert Lance affair soured Carter on the press, and the President felt that collectively the press, even if they self-identified largely as Democrats, treated Ronald Reagan with far more deference and fairness than his administration.

After leaving the White House, Powell went on to lead the public relations firm Ogilvy & Mather Public Affairs, later called Powell Adams & Rinehart, leaving it nearly ten times larger than when he started. He left Ogilvy in 1991 and joined with Nancy Reagan's former press secretary Sheila Tate in founding another public relations firm, Powell Tate. He remained Chairman of Powell Tate until his death from a heart attack in 2009 while chopping firewood at his farm on the Eastern Maryland Shore.

Mother: June
Sister: Susan Glenn
Wife: Nan Sue Jared (m. 23-Apr-1966, one daughter)
Daughter: Emily Boddy

    University: US Air Force Academy (attended 1961-64, expelled for cheating)
    University: BA Political Science, Georgia State University (1966)
    University: MA/PhD Political Science, Emory University

    Powell Tate Co-Founder and Chairman (1991-2009)
    Ogilvy & Mather Chairman and CEO (1987-91)
    The Los Angeles Times Syndicated Columnist (1982-87)
    White House Press Secretary (1977-81)
    Special Operations Warrior Foundation Board of Advisors
    Expelled from School
    Roast: Helen Thomas (1993)

    FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
    The Civil War (23-Sep-1990) [VOICE]

Author of books:
The Other Side of the Story (1984)


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