Cecil W. Stoughton

Cecil W. Stoughton (1962)

Cecil William Stoughton (born January 18, 1920 in Oskaloosa , Iowa , † November 3, 2008 in Merritt Island , Florida ) was an American photographer . He was the first photographer to officially document the tenure of a US president and worked in the White House from 1961 to 1965 , first for John F. Kennedy , then for Lyndon B. Johnson .

Life

Stoughton attended college and then signed up for service in the US Army . There he was trained as a photographer, u. a. with Alfred Eisenstaedt and Margaret Bourke-White . He also learned camera work in Hollywood , among others with the later President Ronald Reagan . During World War II, he served in the Army's First Motion Picture Unit (FMPU) and worked for the United States Army Signal Corps .

Captain Stoughton has been shooting in and for the White House since inauguration on January 20, 1961. In addition to Kennedy, his wife Jacqueline and the children were also motifs. In the 34 months of Kennedy's tenure up to his assassination , he took around 12,000 photos, including one with Robert F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe . He was the only photographer on Air Force One when it flew back to Washington after the attack. This is where his photo of Lyndon B. Johnson's oath was taken to Judge Sarah T. Hughes . In 1967, Stoughton retired as a major and worked for the National Park Service . Many of his photos are now in the possession of the presidential libraries ( John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum and Lyndon Baines Johnson Library & Museum ).

With Chester V. Clifton, Hugh Sidey: The Memories - JFK, 1961-1963. Norton, New York 1973.
Richard Reeves, Harvey Sawler, with photos by Cecil W. Stoughton: Portrait of Camelot: a thousand days in the Kennedy White House. Abrams, New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-81099-585-7 .