Mary
Cite this Page
"Mary," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/617.
- Position
- Maid
- Years in President's House
- circa 1901 – 1909
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Female
- Race/Ethnicity
- White
- Presidency
- Theodore Roosevelt
- Biography
- A list of domestic staff compiled sometime during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt includes a woman named Mary who worked as a maid for First Lady Edith Roosevelt. She was listed alongside three other maids: Annie, Rose, and Anna, all of whom are identified as born in Ireland but little other information was provided.1 Edith Roosevelt’s Social Secretary Isabella Hagner stated in her memoir that when the Roosevelts first moved into the White House “Mrs. Roosevelt had brought her three maids and cook from Oyster Bay,” the Roosevelt’s home in New York.2 Mary may have been one of these four workers, though this is unclear at this time. Hagner also mentioned that one of Mrs. Roosevelt’s maids was the sister of White House Usher Patrick E. McKenna, but she did not specify which maid.3
- List is mentioned in William Seale, The President’s House: A History (Washington, D.C.: White House Historical Association, 2008), 1:666.
- Isabella Hagner, “Memoirs of Isabella Hagner, 1901-1905,” White House History Quarterly No. 26 (August 2009), https://www.whitehousehistory.org/memoirs-of-isabella-hagner-1901-1905
- Isabella Hagner, “Memoirs of Isabella Hagner, 1901-1905,” White House History Quarterly No. 26 (August 2009), https://www.whitehousehistory.org/memoirs-of-isabella-hagner-1901-1905
- Birthplace
- Ireland
- Unclear from context
- Related Workers
- RoseHousekeeping and Laundry, circa 1901 – 1909
- AnnaHousekeeping and Laundry, circa 1901 – 1909
- AnnieHousekeeping and Laundry, circa 1901 – 1909
- Patrick E. McKennaUshers, Stewards, and Doorkeepers, 1903 – 1940