Scared Fearless: An Unlikely Agent in the US Secret Service

The era: the 1970s. The location: an airplane en route to Washington, DC. Kathryn Clark Childers chats with a fellow passenger.

“Are you visiting?” her seatmate asked.“No, I work there,” Childers said, pointing out the window to the White House, which had just come into view. “I'm a Secret Service agent.” “Really? I didn't know they let girls pull that duty. I'm not really sure what you do.”“It's a secret.”

Recruited to the Secret Service as one of its first five female agents, Childers would...