Imagine being with the late Colin Powell, who was Secretary of State and a U.S. Army general, traveling around the world looking out for U.S. interests while maintaining diplomacy at nearly all costs. It’s tough to imagine everything he faced that shaped the 1990s and beyond.
Another set of eyes was on the scene, and that was Leslie Lautenslager, the executive assistant who captured it all in her book “My Time with General Colin Powell, Stories of Kindness, Diplomacy, & Protocol.” She will be in Fredericksburg on March 12 to talk about her experience.
Lautenslager was Powell’s executive assistant for 25 years before his death, and as an honor supported by him, she put it all in a book that hit the stands in late October.
Amidst the world chaos and the weighty responsibilities, there was also Powell the person, a side that often gets overshadowed. The lighthearted stories in the book, the ones that brought a smile to Lautenslager’s face as she wrote them, are a testament to the warmth and humor that was a part of their relationship.
One time, they were on the crowded streets of Trinidad and Tobago, and she was chasing the limousine in high heels or in a crowd in Nigeria next to men with machine guns, which caused some tension. When not globetrotting, they mapped out their duties at their Old Town Alexandria office. After Powell died in October 2021, she grieved like many others around the globe and then realized it was history, so she decided to capture it all in a book.
As her friends and a publisher urged her on, Lautenslager sat down to write and didn’t come up for air until she had a draft. With the uneasy political situation in this country and the instability in some parts of the world, “people are eager for enthusiasm,” she said, and she has seen her life get a jolt when it hit the stands.
For the past few months, she highlighted her book at a speaking event in Old Town, Alexandria, a book party in Annapolis, an event with THIS Hospitality Group, and the Women’s Club of Richmond later this year.
On March 12, she’ll be at the Historic Mary Washington House, 1200 Charles Street, Fredericksburg, giving a talk and signing books from 11 to 4 p.m. On April 16, she will host an event at Hayfield Secondary School in Fairfax County, where she graduated in 1981.
Mike Salmon is a freelance reporter for Potomac Local News.
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