Francisco Lim
- Position
- Houseman
- Years in President's House
- 1961
- circa 1955
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- Asian
- Biography
Francisco Lim was born on June 10, 1924 in the Philippines. Prior to working at the White House, Lim served in the U.S. Navy, likely onboard the presidential yacht USS Williamsburg.1
Most currently known information about Francisco Lim’s White House employment comes from the memoir of White House Maid Lillian Rogers Parks. In the memoir, Parks stated that First Lady Mamie Eisenhower “brought in two men from the Navy - Enrique Aflague, a Guamian [sp.], and Francisco Lim, a Filipino,” and “a Filipino named Jaunito [sp.] Malapit” to work as housemen in the White House. Lim and the other two housemen were “assigned to do nothing but wait on” the first lady. “They took turns stationing themselves outside her door, to run errands and deliver messages,” said Parks. Parks also stated that Lim and the other housemen waited on the first lady when she played bridge with her friends, and would travel to the Eisenhowers’ farm at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to serve her when she stayed there.2 When Lim worked at Gettysburg, he stayed at the Navy barracks at Camp David in nearby Thurmont, Maryland and commuted to the Eisenhowers’ farm.3 Parks mentioned that the personnel changes that brought Lim to the Residence “had begun not many months after Mrs. Eisenhower had arrived at the White House,” which would put his start date in 1953.4
It is unclear how long Lim worked at the White House though he was included on a staff list compiled in 1961 under First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy; the list identified Lim as working as a houseman on the Second and Third Floor of the Residence, helping to keep the private quarters of the first family clean.5
Lim passed away on September 24, 1972, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.6
- Army Cemeteries Explorer, index.html. In White House Maid Lillian Rogers Parks’s memoir, she identifies Lim as Filipino and states he was brought to the White House from the Navy. See Lillian Rogers Parks, My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House (Fleet Publishing, 1961), 322. Enrique Aflague, who was also in the navy and transferred to the White House at the same time as Lim, came from the USS Williamsburg, which makes it likely Lim did as well.
- Parks, My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House, 322.
- J.B. West, Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies (Coward, McCann, & Geoghegan, Inc., 1973), 166-167. West identifies him as “Lem” but given the similarity in descriptions and job responsibilities, it is highly likely that “Lem” and Francisco Lim are the same person.
- Parks, My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House, 322.
- Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis Personal Papers, Letitia Baldrige Files, Christmas: 1961 (2 of 2), John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/jbkopp-sf037-009#?image_identifier=JBKOPP-SF037-009-p0050
- “Francisco Lim” in the U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current, accessed via Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/60525/records/11239797?tid=&pid=&queryId=3991965c-cb55-4971-b9dc-ec2c14272027&_phsrc=KCT3103&_phstart=successSource
- Birthplace
- Philippines
- Arlington National Cemetery
- Related Workers
- James B. WestUshers, Stewards, and Doorkeepers, 1941 – 1969
- Enrique AflagueHousekeeping and Laundry, circa 1953 – 1961
- Juanito MalapitHousekeeping and Laundry, circa 1953 – 1961
- Lillian Rogers ParksHousekeeping and Laundry, 1929 – 1960