There is a question whether Summersby consummated a romance with Eisenhower during the war, as there is no definitive evidence as to the matter. Many people knew both of them during the war but none alleged there was an affair. In
Eisenhower Was My Boss, Summersby's 1948 memoir of the war years, written with journalist
Frank Kearns, she made no mention of any affair. Her 1975 autobiography,
Past Forgetting: My Love Affair with Dwight D. Eisenhower, was explicit about there being a romance, although it also said they had not actually had
sexual intercourse. However, she did not dictate the text.
Past Forgetting was ghostwritten by Barbara Wyden while Summersby was dying of cancer. This book was contracted after Eisenhower had died in 1969. The text states the omission of the affair from the 1948 book was due to her concern for Eisenhower's privacy. Summersby reportedly stated shortly before her death: "The General is dead. I am dying. When I wrote
Eisenhower Was My Boss in 1948, I omitted many things, changed some details, glossed over others to disguise as best I could the intimacy that had grown between General Eisenhower and me. It was better that way." Those who dispute the claim of an affair maintain that the second book's description of the relationship was simply fabricated, presumably by the ghostwriter. By the book's account there were two unsuccessful attempts to have intercourse. Eisenhower himself only mentioned Summersby once in
Crusade in Europe, his 1948 memoir of the war, in a list of aides. However, rumours and jokes about their relationship were common among soldiers who did not know the two. Eisenhower's son
John, who briefly served as an aide, described her as "the
Mary Tyler Moore of headquarters. She was perky and she was cute. Whether she had any designs on the Old Man and the extent to which he succumbed, I just don't know." President
Harry S. Truman reportedly told author
Merle Miller that in 1945, Eisenhower asked permission from General
George Marshall to divorce his wife to marry Summersby, but permission was refused. However, Truman's account of the Summersby controversy has been rejected by most scholars. Historians say Truman had a mistaken recollection and emphasize that Eisenhower had asked permission to bring his wife to England. Others have speculated that Truman was not truthful about Eisenhower because of animosity between the two men that intensified during the
Eisenhower presidency (Truman stated that Eisenhower did not invite him back to the
White House during his administration). Historian
Robert H. Ferrell stated he found that the tapes of Miller's interviews with Truman contain no mention whatever of Summersby, and concludes that Miller concocted the story. Eisenhower biographer
Jean Edward Smith wrote, "Whether he and Kay were intimate remains a matter of conjecture. But there is no question they were in love." Smith accepted Miller's account because
Garrett Mattingly, who as a naval officer in Washington censored outgoing cables, told a similar story to his
Columbia University faculty colleagues in the early 1950s. Smith cited several other people who believed in or were told of the existence of an affair.
Omar Bradley in his autobiography wrote that the two were in love and that "Their close relationship is quite accurately portrayed, so far as my personal knowledge extends, in Kay's second book,
Past Forgetting".
James Gavin wrote that when he asked
Chicago Tribune reporter John Thompson during the war whether Eisenhower and Summersby were having an affair, Thompson replied "I have never before seen a chauffeur get out of a car and kiss the General good morning". ==Awards and honours==