Thomas Carter
Cite this Page
"Thomas Carter," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/1071.
- Position
- Usher
- Years in President's House
- circa 1953 – 1964
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- White
- Biography
- Thomas Carter was an usher who served in the White House during the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson presidencies. He appears in fellow White House worker Preston Bruce’s memoir, From the Door of the White House. It is unclear when exactly Carter began working at the White House but Bruce met him on his first day of work in 1953. According to Bruce, Carter had difficulty adjusting when the Eisenhowers left the White House in 1961. The Kennedys did not adhere to a rigid schedule like the Eisenhowers but instead often changed their plans on short notice or sometimes departed the White House without giving the ushers a warning, which made Carter’s job more challenging. “Neither the President nor the First Lady know the meaning of the word security,” complained Carter to Bruce. “They don’t tell us their plans, and they have no regular habits.”1 Carter is also mentioned in a newspaper article from 1964 so we know he was still working at the White House at that time.2 Little else is known about Carter at this time.
- (1) Preston Bruce, From the Door of the White House (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1984), 8, 76.
- Daily News (New York, NY), January 5, 1964, pg 8.
- Birthplace
- Unclear from context
- Unclear from context