lit a candle 3h agoMy dad had a beat up copy of the Drew Pearson Diaries on the shelf next to his other Washington books, and it wasn't until years later I noticed Tyler Abell's name on the spine as editor. 94 is a long life. That book's still in my dad's living room in Trenton.
Their story
Tyler Abell, an American lawyer who briefly served as Chief of Protocol of the United States in the final months of the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, died on September 19, 2026, at the age of 94. Abell was born in Washington, D.C., on August 9, 1932, the son of Luvie…
Tyler Abell, an American lawyer who briefly served as Chief of Protocol of the United States in the final months of the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, died on September 19, 2026, at the age of 94.
Abell was born in Washington, D.C., on August 9, 1932, the son of Luvie Moore Abell and writer George Abell. When he was five, his mother and her new husband, the influential newspaper columnist Drew Pearson, took custody of him on the British island of Sark, saying George had taken the child overseas without her permission. Growing up in that Washington political and journalistic household shaped his later public life. As an adult he edited Drew Pearson Diaries, 1949-1959, published in 1974, preserving his stepfather's insider view of mid-century American politics for a wider audience.
In 1955 he married Bess Clements Abell, who became White House social secretary under President Johnson. The couple were close personal friends of Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson; Lady Bird hosted their wedding reception. That friendship placed Tyler Abell near the social and ceremonial heart of the Johnson White House long before he held a State Department title of his own. His earlier government career included service as associate general counsel to the Post Office Department in 1963 and as assistant postmaster general from 1964 to 1967, followed by private practice as a partner with the firm Ginsburg and Feldman.
On September 25, 1968, President Johnson named him Chief of Protocol at the State Department. He took office on September 30, 1968, becoming the 14th person to hold the post, and resigned on January 20, 1969, when Richard Nixon entered the White House. Emil Mosbacher Jr. succeeded him. The assignment was brief, spanning the closing months of a turbulent presidency, yet it fixed Abell's name in the official roster of American diplomatic hospitality.
In later years Abell practiced law and served as French-American executive committee co-chair of the Association du Mouvement des Francais de l'Etranger, reflecting lasting ties to Franco-American cultural networks. Oral-history recordings at the LBJ Presidential Library preserve recollections from both Tyler and Bess Abell about life around the Johnsons. Bess Abell died in 2020. Tyler Abell died on September 19, 2026. An online funeral-home notice recorded his age as 94; a detailed public cause of death was not widely reported in major news coverage.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); U.S. State Department Office of the Historian; New York Times (Bess Abell obituary); Going Home Cremation & Funeral Care notice; LBJ Library.
Photos
1Tyler Abell at the LBJ Presidential Library, February 1, 2017
by People Forever
my father had that same edition, good memory to have