Wilson Jerman, White House butler who served 11 POTUS dies with COVID-19

Mohammed Awal May 22, 2020
Photograph: Tina Hager/George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum

Wilson Roosevelt Jerman was a former White House butler. Believed to be one of the longest-serving employees of the White House, Jerman served 11 United States presidents in a career spanning five decades. And last weekend he succumbed to COVID-19 at the age of 91.

Working as a cleaner in 1957 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jerman’s White House career experienced remarkable takeoff when John F. Kennedy became president. He was promoted to a butler thanks to the good rapport and relationship with Jacqueline Kennedy, the then-first lady.

She was instrumental in ensuring that that happened,” his granddaughter, Jamila Garrett, told Fox 5. ā€œHe had a very close relationship with Jackie O…she She trusted him with her children, and he would ensure they had everything they needed in the White House.ā€

After retiring from the White House in 1997, Jerman returned in 2003. He would leave again in 2012 as maĆ®tre d’ under then-President Barack Obama, according to reports.

Jerman’s passing has rattled America including the former first families he served diligently in his more than five-decade career in the White House which began as a cleaner and ended as an elevator operator during the Barack Obama presidency.

ā€œWith his kindness and care, Wilson Jerman helped make the White House a home for decades of first families, including ours,ā€ said Michelle Obama. ā€œHis service to others his willingness to go above and beyond for the country he loved and all those whose lives he touched is a legacy worthy of his generous spirit.ā€

Jerman died last Saturday at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center in Woodbridge, Va. with Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus which has infected 1,621,333 with 96,363 deaths.

In a joint statement to NBC News, former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush said Jerman ā€œwas a lovely man.ā€ ā€œHe was the first person we saw at the White House when we left the residence in the morning, and the last person we saw when we returned at night.ā€

Hillary Clinton also wrote: ā€œJerman served as a White House butler across 11 presidencies and made generations of first families feel at home, including ours. Our warmest condolences to his loved ones.ā€

Jerman was born on Jan. 21, 1929, in Seaboard, N.C., to Theodore Roosevelt Jerman, a farmworker, and Alice Plum. According to his granddaughter, Garret, he did not wear shoes and walked six miles to school when he was a child and dropped out at a point to work on a farm.

He later moved to Washington in 1955. ā€œHe never judged, he never complained, ever, because he went through so many tribulations,ā€ Garret said. ā€œHe was the mechanic. He would fix your roof. Anything you needed — he was that person.ā€

“He was authentic. He was a quiet but stern man. Very giving, never fussed or complained. Always said he lived a blessed life,” Shanta Taylor Gay, who’s also Jerman’s granddaughter told CNN on Thursday.

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