November 3 2013: HOLLERS, Helen

HELEN COLLE DONALDSON HOLLERS

Helen Colle Donaldson Hollers, who served 43 years and nine presidents as a White House staff member, died September 18, 2013, of causes related to aging in Washington DC. She was 95.

Mrs. Hollers, a Nebraska native, was born Helen Lucille Husemann in the village of Lindsay. She attended Wayne State Teachers College and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

Mrs. Hollers started her government service at an early age at the Department of Agriculture in Washington where she served as an . industrial specialist in the Oilseeds Division through the World War II years.

The passage of the National Security Act in 1947 unified the military services under a secretary of defense and also created the National Security Resources Board. Mrs. Hollers joined that group as administrative assistant to the first chairman, Arthur Middleton Hill. When he later resigned that post, Dr. John R. Steelman, Assistant to President Harry Truman, invited her to join the White House staff as his administrative assistant. With the change of administration following the 1952 election, Mrs. Hollers stayed on to assist in the transition, following which she joined the staff of Bernard M. Shanley, first as counsel, and then as appointments secretary to President Eisenhower. When Thomas E. Stephens later returned to that post, she stayed on with him and remained in Presidential Appointments and Scheduling until her retirement at the end of the George H.W. Bush Administration in 1993. Mrs. Hollers was an active member of the Church of the Annunciation in Washington and the Church of the Blessed Trinity in St. Petersburg, Florida. She was also a long-time member of The Army and Navy Club in Washington.

A Mass of Christian Burial will take place at 11 a.m. Friday, November 8, 2013, at the Church of the Annunciation, 3125 39th St., NW, Washington, DC 20016. Inurnment at Arlington National Cemetery will occur at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Church of the Annunciation at the above address.

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