From slavery to the White House, the Ficklin family served presidents for nearly 8 decades

WASHINGTON — John Wrory Ficklin was 7 years old when he learned that his father, the son of a slave, was important.

It was 1963 and the nation was mourning President John F. Kennedy. Wrory Ficklin was sitting with her mother and brother, watching the funeral on television in the family’s Washington apartment, when she gasped.

His father, James Woodson Ficklin, wore a morning suit and stood next to Kennedy’s casket with other White House ushers. He was a butler at the White House at the time, but Kennedy’s widow, Jacqueline, asked him to join the ushers that day.

Woodson Ficklin served a remarkable 44 years on the White House residence staff. His son, Wrory Ficklin, also had a long career in the White House – 40 years on the National Security Council staff.

Presidents come and go from the White House every four or eight years, but the Ficklin family — Woodson Ficklin, his wife, some of his siblings and son Wrory Ficklin — has been a constant there for nearly eight decades, serving 13 presidents, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Barack Obama.

A family at the president’s side for a third of America’s 250 years.

PHOTOS: From slavery to the White House, the Ficklin family served presidents for nearly eight decades

With his retirement in 2015, Wrory became the last full-time Ficklin employee, capping a record of family service documented in his book “An Unusual Path: Three Generations from Slavery to the White House.”

“The book is my family’s story, it’s the story of African Americans and it’s the story of our country,” he told The Associated Press in an interview. “My father and I stand on the shoulders of my grandfather and I like to think that we have both contributed a lot to our country. »

The family story begins with a grandfather born a slave

The first chapter of what Wrory Ficklin described as a “truly American story” opens with his grandfather, James Strother Ficklin, born into slavery around 1854 in Rappahannock County, Virginia.

Strother was a water boy for the Confederate Army during the Civil War. After emancipation, he did odd jobs for the family that owned him.

He remarried in 1894 after his first wife died in childbirth and moved to Youngstown, Ohio, to escape racism in Virginia and make a living in the booming coal and steel industries. Records show that they returned to Rappahannock a few years later, although it is not clear why.

Strother and his second wife, Helen, had saved enough money to purchase 37 acres (0.15 square kilometers) of land in Amissville, Virginia, in 1901. He built a house and farmed the land to help feed the family. After Helen died while giving birth, Strother married his third wife, Vallie Lee Davenport, in 1907. They had 10 children – five girls and five boys.

One of these boys was John Woodson Ficklin.

The Ficklin brothers worked together in the White House

Woodson Ficklin was 15 when he moved to Washington in 1934 to live with an older sister and her husband. He worked odd jobs and went to high school at night, graduating in 1939 – the year his older brother, Charles, began working as a butler at the White House. Charles Ficklin helped him land a part-time job washing dishes and doing everything butlers didn’t have time to do themselves.

Military service during World War II briefly interrupted their White House careers, but they received promotions after their return, with Charles Ficklin and Woodson Ficklin becoming head butler and butler, respectively. Woodson Ficklin met President Harry Truman and First Lady Bess Truman on his second day as their butler when he served the couple breakfast.

Further promotions followed under Dwight Eisenhower, with Charles Ficklin becoming maître d’—the longest-serving butler—and Woodson Ficklin taking over as head butler, putting him in charge of six full-time butlers.

Woodson Ficklin succeeded his brother again in March 1967, when Charles Ficklin retired.

Woodson Ficklin worked closely with first ladies

Woodson Ficklin was now responsible for planning and executing White House social events, ranging from state lunches and dinners to birthday parties and barbecues on the South Lawn.

There were visits from the British royal family and the annual series of Christmas parties, the White House wedding of Richard Nixon’s daughter Tricia in 1971, and the decision of Gerald Ford’s daughter Susan to hold her prom at the White House.

Along the way, Woodson Ficklin earned the trust of presidents and first ladies who relied on his expertise. Some sent thank you notes after perfectly executed events.

First lady Patricia Nixon wrote in October 1969 about “the great number of complimentary remarks we receive after every social event at the White House,” according to a copy of the letter reproduced in the book. “Our family is very grateful for the time and interest you devote to making each occasion so enjoyable and memorable for our guests and for us.”

President Jimmy Carter expressed his appreciation in a March 1979 letter for the work done by Woodson Ficklin and his team around the signing of a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

“Everything was perfect and we are grateful,” Carter wrote.

Woodson Ficklin retired in May 1983. In the greatest show of appreciation for his 44-year career, the Reagans invited him and his wife Nancy to a state dinner that year for the Emir of Bahrain.

He is believed to be the first member of the White House residence staff to be invited to a state dinner, which was the subject of a media blitz. Woodson Ficklin sat at the first lady’s table and told an interviewer that she “put me at ease and made me feel like a guest.” When asked about the service, he replied: “These are my boys. I trained them.”

Woodson Ficklin died in December 1984 at age 65.

Wrory Ficklin spent most of his career in national security

“Seeing my father on television was a big deal, and seeing him attend our president’s funeral was beyond my youthful understanding,” Wrory Ficklin wrote. He said years passed before he understood “the gravity and importance” of his father’s work.

Yet Wrory Ficklin ended up doing important work at the White House, too, after a summer job in high school, delivering sealed envelopes between the White House and the special prosecutor in charge of the Watergate investigation. He also worked for his father in the pantry at state dinners and other large events.

Wrory Ficklin joined the NSC staff in 1975, beginning a 40-year tenure that overlapped with that of his father and other family members. He began working evenings as a clerk while attending college during the day, and by 1987 he was training new staff.

Under Obama, Wrory Ficklin was promoted to special assistant to the president for national security affairs. He retired in 2015 with a special request to his boss, national security adviser Susan Rice: Could he attend a state dinner, like his father?

Wrory Ficklin and his wife, Patrice, were invited to the 2015 state dinner honoring Chinese President Xi Jinping. With a few minor modifications, he wore the tuxedo jacket and cummerbund his father wore in 1983.

That dinner was the highlight of his career, he said.

“Just seeing for myself the quality of the service, the precision of the butlers, the type of service that they provided, was actually a legacy for my father,” Wrory Ficklin said in the interview.