Preston Bruce

Preston Bruce was born on January 15, 1908, in McColl, South Carolina. His great-grandparents were enslaved, and subsequent generations became sharecroppers, his parents included.¹ By 1940, Bruce lived in Washington, D.C. He held a variety of jobs with the U.S. Treasury Department, including laborer and messenger, and owned a barber shop.²

In November 1953, he joined the White House staff as a doorman, a position he held until his retirement in 1975. As doorman, Bruce was responsible for greeting guests and guiding them to their seats during official functions including State Dinners. To facilitate this process, Bruce designed a table - dubbed the “Bruce table” - to hold the numerous place cards for visitors, and tasked the White House Carpenter Bonner Arrington with constructing it.³ Doorman duties also entailed escorting the president and first family around the White House on a daily basis. “I saw them [presidents] first thing in the morning, and at night just before they went to bed,” Bruce said, “As doorman I was the first to greet a newly inaugurated president and the last to say goodbye when he left.”⁴ Working in such close proximity to first families allowed Bruce to form bonds with them. Bruce became particularly close with the Eisenhower family. After President Eisenhower’s death in 1969, Bruce and his family periodically visited former First Lady Mamie Eisenhower at her home in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.⁵

Bruce also became close with the Kennedys, especially President Kennedy whom Bruce claimed always greeted him by his first name and “made me feel that I was part of the family.” Bruce was at home when he learned of Kennedy’s assassination. He immediately drove to the White House but was so distraught that he sped and was pulled over by a police officer. When Bruce explained to the policeman his job and why he was racing, the officer did not issue a ticket but instead escorted him the rest of the way. Bruce then remained at the White House for four days straight, assisting the first family any way he could.⁶ In recognition of how much Bruce meant to the Kennedys, Robert Kennedy, the attorney general and brother to the late-president, invited Bruce to walk with the family to the funeral Mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral.⁷ 

After Kennedy’s death, Bruce continued to serve as doorman while also holding occasional part-time jobs outside the White House, including as a barber and landscaper.⁸ In 1975, White House Chief Usher Rex Scouten offered Bruce the job of usher, but he declined due to his age and deteriorating health and instead retired. Had he accepted the promotion, Bruce would have been the first African American to hold the position. (8) A few months into retirement, Bruce returned to the White House at the request of Scouten to assist with several receptions during the Ford presidency but then retired for good.⁹ In 1984, he published a memoir titled From the Door of the White House. He wrote: “Each family affected me deeply,” declared Bruce. “In my heart they became my family, my charges.”¹⁰ Bruce passed away on December 21, 1994, and is buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Culpepper, Virginia.¹¹