United States Government Official, Journalist, Publicist. She will be best remembered for serving as President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Associate Press Secretary at the White House in Washington, D.C., after being appointed to that post on May 2, 1957, becoming the first woman to hold that post. She was born the eldest of nine children as Anne Williams to John Williams (1865-1944), a Republican Member of the State Assembly in New York beginning in 1906, then as New York State Labor Commissioner under appointment by 5 governors for twenty years, and his wife Elizabeth Owen Williams (1873-1961), in Utica, New York, on September 11, 1892. She was educated locally and attended the Albany High School in Albany, New York, and later attended and graduated from the prestigious Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1912. Following her education, she became a journalist and worked for the Knickerbocker Press in Albany, New York, where she copied recipes, and became one of the first women political reporters to be assigned to the New York Legislature, beginning in 1912, and until she left their employment to pursue other options in 1921. She then moved to Washington, D.C., to advance her journalistic career as a political correspondent and soon became involved in several national women's organizations and clubs including those that included the Cause and Cure of War Conference, which were chaired by activist Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947), and the Women's Organization for Prohibition Reform and also served as the Director of the League of Women Voters for six years. She also served as a public relations director for Republican Party Candidates and activities from 1924 to 1939. She also served as the Assistant to the Director of Publicity for the Republican National Committee from 1939 to 1957, and as a Publicity Representative for the wives of Republican Presidential Candidates in 1940, 1944, 1948, and again in 1952. She personally served as a Press Representative to Edith Wilk Willkie in 1940, Frances Hutt Dewey in 1944, and the future First Lady of the United States Mamie Eisenhower (1896-1979), in 1952. During this time, she was then assigned to the newly elected President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters in New York City, New York, to work as a liaison for the Eisenhower family in planning the January 1953 inauguration. She was then nominated at the fifth annual Republican Women's Conference in Washington, D.C., to become the Associate Press Secretary on April 3, 1957. She then became the Associate Press Secretary to the Eighth White House Press Secretary James Hagerty (1909-1981), and then-President of the United States of America Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), having been sworn in at the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 2, 1957. Upon her nomination, it was made clear that her appointment was not merely to cover women's issues, but to be his assistant in all matters. This included being in charge of presidential press relations when the President or the Press Secretary was away from Washington, D.C. Her duties included participating in the discussions preceding the President's weekly press conference, anticipating reporters' questions, and briefing the President on information he might need to answer them. She was the first woman in history to serve in the post as the Associate Press Secretary and one of her most daunting tasks was to speak to the press about a stroke that President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) had suffered in November of 1957, although she had not much knowledge of the President's medical condition or the situation itself. As the Associate Press Secretary for the White House, she became extremely popular among Washington correspondents, who referred to her as "Our Annie." She served as the Associate Press Secretary until her retirement from that post in 1961. She then briefly came out of retirement and also served as a Public Relations Representative at the National Rockefeller for President Committee in Washington, D.C. for former Vice President Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (1908-1979), in his 1964 bid for the Republican Presidential Nomination. She was once asked by a reporter how she had survived her many years on the Republican National Committee, she responded, "A newspaper person faces a job in politics on a different basis from a top Republican official. You're doing a professional job. Your personal opinions do not prevail. You pursue your job as someone might sell some product." Following her retirement from politics, she moved to Dallas, Texas, in 1973. She passed away in Dallas, Texas, on March 23, 1977, at the age of 84. Following her death, she was cremated and her ashes were buried in Woodland Cemetery in Stamford, Connecticut. She was married to the journalist Warren Wheaton on February 19, 1926, but they divorced in November of 1946. The couple had no children together. Her personal papers are stored at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum in Abilene, Kansas.