White House Historical Association

Katherine Wynne

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"Katherine Wynne," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/677.
Position
Maid
Years in President's House
circa 1920 – 1928
Legal Status
Free Person
Gender
Female
Race/Ethnicity
White
Presidencies
Woodrow Wilson
Warren G. Harding
Calvin Coolidge
Biography
Katherine Wynne was born in 1876 in Carlow, Ireland. When she was a child, her family moved to Canada. She later immigrated to the United States on April 30, 1905.1 Her exact employment start date at the White House is unclear, but Wynne began working there as a personal maid to First Lady Edith Wilson towards the end of Woodrow Wilson’s presidency. The 1920 Census records her living at the White House.2 On June 20, 1923, Wynne traveled with President Warren G. Harding and First Lady Florence Harding on their “Voyage of Understanding,” a transcontinental tour of the western United States and parts of Canada, during which the president unexpectedly passed away.3 In September 1925, she began the five-year process to become an American citizen and “did without any hesitation whatever renounced her allegiance to King George V of Great Britain and Ireland.”4 In the summer of 1927, Wynne was one of twelve servants and personal attendants and nearly two hundred people who traveled to the summer White House in Brule, Wisconsin with President Calvin Coolidge and First Lady Grace Coolidge.5 On January 9, 1928, Wynne died. Grace Coolidge visited the funeral home where the arrangements were made to “supervise the arrangements personally” and gave the family a wreath of roses to adorn the casket.6 At the funeral, White House staff served as the pallbearers including, B.E. McKenner, Thomas Scanlon, Joseph A. Sheehan, William Shields, and Edward A. Norris. Newspapers across the country reported her death and she was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C.7
  1. “Katherine Wynne U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600-Current,” Ancestry, accessed May 28, 2026, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/60525/records/150745563?tid=&pid=&queryId=30de2ab9-b8c9-458c-a284-832c28550827&_phsrc=OuO1338&_phstart=successSource; “Katherine Wynne in the 1920 United States Federal Census,” Ancestry, accessed May 27, 2026, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6061/records/19700752?tid=&pid=&queryId=8314b714-3b33-4250-a1a8-90116f4af2d9&_phsrc=OuO1359&_phstart=successSource; “Mrs. Coolidge’s Maid Dies of Pneumonia,” The Washington Post, January 10, 1928, https://www.newspapers.com/image/1037557937/?match=1&terms=Katherine Wynne.
  2. “Katherine Wynne in the 1920 United States Federal Census,” Ancestry, accessed May 27, 2026, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6061/records/19700752?tid=&pid=&queryId=8314b714-3b33-4250-a1a8-90116f4af2d9&_phsrc=OuO1359&_phstart=successSource.
  3. “Men and Affairs in Washington,” The Tulsa Tribune, June 24, 1923, https://www.newspapers.com/image/884423583/.
  4. “Coolidge Maid Will Be U.S. Citizen,” The Washington Times, September 24, 1925, https://www.newspapers.com/image/1044660308/?match=1&terms=Katherine Wynne/; “Mrs. Coolidge’s Maid Would Be American,” The Washington Post, September 24, 1925, https://www.newspapers.com/image/1037574411/?match=1&terms=Katherine Wynne.
  5. Bascom N. Timmons, “200 Attaches to Accompany Cal on Wisconsin Visit,” The Post-Crescent, June 7, 1928, https://www.newspapers.com/image/287595137/?terms=catherine wynne maid&match=1.
  6. “Mrs. Coolidge Sends Wreath for Maid,” The Washington Evening Star, January 12, 1928, https://www.newspapers.com/image/618526110/?match=1&terms=Katherine Wynne; “Katherine Wynne,” The Washington Times Herald, January 12, 1928, https://www.newspapers.com/image/1044649398/?match=3&terms=Katherine Wynne.
  7. “Maid at the White House Will be Laid to Rest,” The Washington Herald, January 17, 1928, https://www.newspapers.com/image/1042517981/?match=1&terms=Edward A. Norris ; “Mrs. Coolidge’s Maid Dies of Pneumonia,” The Washington Post, January 10, 1928, https://www.newspapers.com/image/1037557937/?match=1&terms=Katherine Wynne.
Birthplace
Carlow, Ireland
Mount Olivet Cemetery
Related Workers
B.E. McKenner
circa 1928
Thomas J. Scanlon
circa 1928
Joseph A. Sheehan
circa 1928
William Shields