Thirty years ago, Peggy Suntum got a phone call. She was set to begin a new job the following day as a White House stenographer, meticulously transcribing the president’s every public utterance. The caller informed her that the Marine Barracks in Beirut had been attacked, and that she was needed immediately.

Since then, Suntum’s three decades at the White House have spanned five presidencies, throughout which she has had a front-row seat to history, recording the words of commanders in chief for posterity. She was with President George W. Bush on September 11. With George H. W. Bush in Wenceslas Square in Prague to commemorate the first anniversary of the velvet revolution in 1990. With Bill Clinton through the darkest days of the Lewinsky scandal. “It doesn’t seem like yesterday, but it also doesn’t feel like 30 years,” she says...