Nancy Clarke was the White House Chief Floral Designer for three decades. She retired on May 31, 2009. Her only book, My First Ladies: Twenty-Five Years as the White House Chief Floral Designer, was published in 2011. She received the 2006 Award of Merit to Industry by the American Institute of Floral Designers. She died on January 14, 2012 at the age of 66.
Christie Matheson is a writer whose work has appeared in Body & Soul, Glamour, Shape, Boston, San Francisco, Yoga Journal, and The Boston Globe Magazine. She is coauthor of The Confetti Cakes Cookbook, Vineyard Harvest: A Year of Good Food on Martha's Vineyard, and Tea Party and is the author and photographer of the outdoor travel book Discover Rhode Island. She lives in San Francisco, CA.
