Eley F. Young
- Position
- Butler
- Years in President's House
- 1967 – 1987
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- Black or African American
- Biography
Born on March 14, 1925, in Fredonia, Alabama, Eley Frank Young joined the U.S. Navy in 1943 during World War II.1 He remained in the Navy until the Vietnam War when, in 1967, Young received word that the White House was looking for butlers and decided to apply. He was granted the job and given the title butler’s apprentice. As an apprentice, he worked for three years at the White House as a trial run while still technically serving in the Navy. After his apprenticeship ended, he became a full-time butler. When asked in an interview with a journalist why he switched careers from the Navy to the White House, he jokingly responded: “I compared paychecks.”2
Young remained a butler at the White House through 1987.3 Young passed away on August 16, 1993, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.4
- Carolyn Danforth, “Around the World from Fredonia to White House,” The Opelika-Auburn News (Opelika, AL), December 21, 1979, pg. 8; White House Office of the Curator, e-mail message to author, March 16, 2026.
- Carolyn Danforth, “He’s the Man Who Greets the President,” The Opelika-Auburn News (Opelika, AL), December 23, 1979, pg. 6.
- White House Office of the Curator, e-mail message to author, March 16, 2026.
- “Eley Frank Young,” Find A Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/49340603/eley-frank-young.
- Birthplace
- Fredonia, Alabama, USA
- Arlington National Cemetery