Kay Summersby

Kay Summersby
Kay Summersby in 1944.
Birth name	Kathleen Helen MacCarthy-Morrogh
Born	23 November 1908 County Cork, Ireland
Died	20 January 1975(1975-01-20) (aged 66) Southampton, New York
Allegiance	United Kingdom  United States
Service/branch	Mechanised Transport Corps (UK) Women's Army Corps (US)
Years of service	1939–1947
Rank	Captain
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Bronze Star Medal Women's Army Corps Service Medal European Campaign Medal World War II Victory Medal Army of Occupation Medal British Empire Medal

External image

Bust portraits of Dwight D. Eisenhower and Kay Summersby Morgan

Kay Summersby (23 November 1908 – 20 January 1975) was a member of the British Mechanised Transport Corps during World War II, who served as a chauffeur and later as personal secretary to Dwight D. Eisenhower during his period as Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force in command of the Allied forces in north west Europe. They were together a great deal until the war ended, when Eisenhower cut ties and returned to the United States. It is generally agreed that Summersby and Eisenhower became extremely close during the war, and some writers have suggested that they had a sexual relationship, although several people who knew both of them at the time have rejected that claim, as have most of Eisenhower's biographers.

Summersby was born Kathleen Helen MacCarthy-Morrogh in Ballydehob, County Cork, Ireland. She was the daughter of Donald Florence MacCarthy-Morrogh and Vera Mary MacCarthy-Morrogh (née Hutchinson). Her father, descended from the MacCarthy Reagh Princes of Carbery, was originally from County Kerry, and her mother was born in Wales, as the fourth of five sisters, to an English gentleman and Irish mother who was also descended from the Morrogh family.

She described her father, a retired Lt. Colonel of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, as "black Irish" and her mother as English. As a young woman, she moved to London where she worked as a film studio extra, dabbled in photography, and eventually became a fashion model. She was married in 1936 to British Army officer Gordon Thomas Summersby; when they divorced, she retained the name of her ex-husband. There was an engagement to marry US Army officer Lieutenant Colonel Richard "Dick" Arnold that overlapped her initial period with Eisenhower; however, this ended with the death of her fiancé while mine clearing during the North Africa campaign.

When Britain entered the Second World War in 1939, Summersby joined the British Mechanised Transport Corps (MTC). She drove an ambulance throughout the London Blitz in 1940 and 1941, and was reportedly excellent at navigating London streets during blackouts and fog. When the United States joined the Allies after the German declaration of war in December 1941, Summersby was one of many MTC drivers assigned as chauffeurs to high-ranking American military officers.