Rose Mary Woods: Nixon's Longtime Secretary and Watergate Tape Figure Di

Rose Mary Woods was Richard Nixon's personal secretary for most of his political career. Born on December 26, 1917, in Sebring, Ohio, she joined his staff in 1951 and stayed through the presidency.

She became famous in 1973 during Watergate, when she said she had accidentally erased up to five minutes of an 18-and-a-half-minute gap on a White House tape. Her stretch pose at the desk was widely ridiculed, and the gap was never satisfactorily explained.

Woods never married and had no children. She was injured by flying glass in an attack on Nixon's motorcade in Venezuela in 1958. She died in Alliance, Ohio, on January 22, 2005, at age 87.

Achievements: Personal secretary to Richard Nixon (1951-1974).

Birth: December 26, 1917 - Sebring, Ohio.

Profession: Secretary.

Interesting Facts: The erased tape gap became known as the Rose Mary stretch.