She worked as a buyer for a department store before joining the Secret Service
Born November 21, 1951, in Frankfurt (then West Germany), her mother worked for the U.S. government as a microfilm technician while her father was a U.S. Army sergeant. Her family later moved to France but she grew up in Connecticut in the U.S. after her parents separated. Besides taking ballet and piano lessons, she was usually present at civil rights demonstrations with her mother.
Flemister later studied for a bachelor’s degree in political science and worked as a buyer for a department store after graduating in 1973. But with her desire to work in the government service, like her parents, she applied for the Secret Service after meeting a recruiter at a job fair, according to The Washington Post. In August 1974, she was appointed as a special agent assigned to the Washington field office.
