The era: the 1970s. The location: an airplane en route to Washington, DC. Kathryn Clark Childers chats with a fellow passenger.
“Are you visiting?” her seatmate asked.
“No, I work there,” Childers said, pointing out the window to the White House, which had just come into view. “I’m a Secret Service agent.”
“Really? I didn’t know they let girls pull that duty. I’m not really sure what you do.”
“It’s a secret.”
Recruited to the Secret Service as one of its first five female agents, Childers would surprise many people, including herself. Her duties included undercover work, protective details for Jacqueline Kennedy and her children, and attending state dinners where she met world leaders, including Prince Juan Carlos of Spain. In addition, she had to figure out how to disguise the .357 Magnum revolver that she carried at all times, whether wearing jogging clothes, a business suit, or an evening gown. It was 1970, and the Secret Service, like most public and private organizations, struggled—sometimes unsuccessfully—with the challenges of incorporating a rising tide of women into government service and other professional workplaces.
Written in a lighthearted but highly informative style, Scared Fearless details the obstacles and the joys, the moments of high adventure, and the laughable fashion dilemmas that were part of Childers’s groundbreaking role. Through everything that happened, Childers says she followed her father’s admonition: “Just do it scared.”
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“Kathy and I worked some ‘out of the ordinary but grand’ assignments together during her time in Secret Service. We have completely different personalities and completely different backgrounds. Kathy loved the protection details and I loved the undercover and criminal investigations, however, we accomplished both with success…sometimes with a lot of sweat and tears. We made a great team. Kathy has the gift of taking an ordinary or mundane event and making it something special. Each of the first five female special agents had diverse backgrounds and experiences and Kathy presents one of these stories in the memories that she has highlighted in this book.”
— Phyllis Shantz, one of the first five female Secret Service agents
“Rumor has it Kathryn was born during an earthquake. She certainly rocked history as one of ‘the First Five.’ Humor, intelligence, tenacity, and hard work paid off as she was thrown into a man’s world of the US Secret Service during the chaotic ’70s, thus paving the way for the hundreds of female agents who came after her.”
— Sue Ann Baker, author of Behind the Shades: A Female Secret Service Agent’s True Story“They were pioneers who blazed the trail for the hundreds of female agents that followed, and they continue to be essential to the Secret Service. Kathryn is an example as to why I am so proud of the females we employed and the tremendous value they added.”
— Clint Hill, assistant director, US Secret Service (retired) and #1 New York Times bestselling authorBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Kathryn Clark Childers was one of the first five women hired by the US Secret Service in 1970. Since leaving the Service and moving to the Corpus Christi area in 1973, she has been a television producer, broadcaster, and talk show host. A professional speaker, she has been a featured presenter for organizations nationwide.
Pamela Almand, a former international 747 pilot for Delta Airlines, launched an unlikely second career after appearing in a national television spot for Tylenol in 1995. Several regional spots for Northwest Airlines followed, and she began narrating training and industry videos, built a professional recording studio, and launched the Captain’s Voice. Since then, Pamela has provided voice-over for major corporate clients worldwide, including Microsoft, Disney, Canadian Realtors, the United Nations, Zurich, International Red Cross, and the hotels and casinos of Monte Carlo. She is a SAG/AFTRA voice actor and audiobook narrator with multiple awards and nominations from the Audio Publishers Association’s Audie Awards, Society of Voice Arts and Sciences’ Voice Arts Awards, and AudioFile magazine’s Earphones Award. She lives in Atlantic Beach, Florida, with her husband, Amos.