Mable E. Walker Ciarrochi
Cite this Page
"Mable E. Walker Ciarrochi," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/1028.
- Positions
- Housekeeper
- Curatorial Staff
- Years in President's House
- 1946 – 1963
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Female
- Race/Ethnicity
- White
- Biography
- Mable Elizabeth Walker Ciarrochi, known as “Liz,” was born on December 24, 1912 in Inskip, Tennessee, near Knoxville. (1) In 1943, she moved to Washington, D.C., and worked in a variety of clerical and assistant jobs for the federal government, including for the Commerce Department. (2) In 1946, at the recommendation of Liz’s supervisor, Liz began working as assistant housekeeper at the White House under the supervision of Head Housekeeper Mary Sharpe. Liz helped Sharpe keep track of the Truman family’s household accounts, assisted the first family with correspondence, and typed the menus for meals. (3) In 1948, Sharpe retired and Liz was promoted to head housekeeper. (4) From 1948 to 1952, Liz continued working as head housekeeper but her place of work shifted from the White House to Blair House, the President’s Guest House, due to the major renovations underway at the White House which forced the Trumans to temporarily move. (5)
Liz served as head housekeeper until 1962 when First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy reassigned her to the role of “furniture researcher.” (6) In this new role, Liz inventoried and catalogued White House furniture to assist Kennedy in her historical refurbishment of the White House interiors. Liz likely worked in close tandem with the White House curators including William Voss Elder III. (7) During her time working in the presidential household, she gained the nickname “the Tennessee Darling” amongst fellow household staff because of her southern accent. (8)
Liz left her job at the White House in 1963 for health reasons and returned to Tennessee where she remained for the rest of her life. (9) Liz passed away on April 26, 1993 and was buried in Zion Grove Cemetery in Tennessee. (10)
Thank you to the Pigeon Forge Public Library for providing research assistance with this biography. - (1) “Mable Elizabeth Walker Ciarrochi,” U.S. Find a Grave Index, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/44379810/mable_elizabeth-ciarrochi; “Maybelle Walker” in 1920 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4390409_00031?pId=99928641.
(2) “The White House Tennessee Darling President’s Memorabilia Collection,” Pigeon Forge Public Library, https://cityofpigeonforge.com/darling_collection.aspx
(3) Liz’s start date at the White House and description of her general duties comes from the recollections of her husband, Elia Ciarrochi, found in “The White House: Tennessee Darling,” which was provided to the White House Historical Association by the Pigeon Forge Public Library in Tennessee.
(4) Lillian Rogers Parks, My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House (Fleet Publishing Corporation, 1961), 299; Ciarrochi, “The White House: Tennessee Darling,” 30.
(5) Lillian Rogers Parks, My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House (Fleet Publishing Corporation, 1961), 299,
(6) “Staff Jobs Shifted At White House By Mrs Kennedy," New York Times, November 8, 1962, pg. 41.
(7) Sarah Fling, “Hail to the Chief Curator,” White House History.org, https://www.whitehousehistory.org/hail-to-the-chief-curator
(8) Parks, My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House, 319.
(9) Ciarrochi, “White House: Tennessee Darling,” 34. When Liz moved to Tennessee, she donated to the Pigeon Forge Library a collection of White House memorabilia she had acquired during her tenure there, including signed letters and gifts from first ladies Bess Truman and Jacqueline Kennedy. See “The White House Tennessee Darling President’s Memorabilia Collection,” Pigeon Forge Public Library, https://cityofpigeonforge.com/darling_collection.aspx.
(10) “Mable Elizabeth Walker Ciarrochi,” U.S. Find a Grave Index, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/44379810/mable_elizabeth-ciarrochi. - Birthplace
- Inskip, Tennessee, USA