White House Historical Association

Kosta Boris

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"Kosta Boris," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/769.
Position
Valet
Years in President's House
1929 – 1933
Legal Status
Free Person
Gender
Male
Race/Ethnicity
White
Presidency
Herbert Hoover
Biography
Kosta Boris was born in Serbia in 1889; he moved to the United States in 1907 and became a naturalized citizen.1 Boris served in the U.S. Army in World War I and worked for the United States Food Administration in Paris afterward; through this role, he met Herbert Hoover, who led the Administration. Boris returned to the U.S. with Hoover, hired as his valet.2 He continued to serve in this role for the entirety of Hoover’s presidency, living upstairs at the White House.3 As valet to the president, he oversaw Hoover’s wardrobe, traveled with him, and even cared for his grandchildren and dogs.4 The New York Times dubbed him a “…handyman, factotum of the guests, an indispensable cog in the machinery of the household.”5 While on an errand for First Lady Lou Hoover at a D.C. department store, he met his future wife, Essie.6 In the years after the White House, Boris worked for Stanford University and remained close to the Hoovers.7 Kosta Boris died on October 1, 1978 in Palo Alto, California.8
  1. Sam Childers, “Presidential Valets: Confidantes of the Wardrobe,” White House History 32 (Fall 2012); Kosta Boris in United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls, Ancestry.com.
  2. Sam Childers, “Presidential Valets: Confidantes of the Wardrobe,” White House History 32 (Fall 2012).
  3. Kosta Boris in 1930 Federal Census, Year: 1930; Census Place: Washington, District of Columbia; Page: 15A; Enumeration District: 0066; FHL microfilm: 2340028, Ancestry.com.
  4. “Ready for Christmas: Children Again Romp at White House,” Evening Star, December 22, 1931, pg. B-31, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1931-12-22/ed-1/seq-17/; “Eye for Business and Heart for Humanity is White House Creed,” Evening Star, March 7, 1929, pg. 93, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1929-03-17/ed-1/seq-93/; Herbert Plummer, “A Washington Daybook,” Evening Star, July 23, 1931, pg. C-6, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1931-07-23/ed-1/seq-36/.
  5. Will Irwin, “AT HOME WITH THE PRESIDENT: HIS UNOFFICIAL SIDE REVEALED,” New York Times, April 24, 1932, pg. XX3. (6) “ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW AND DOCUMENTARY With MR. AND MRS. KOSTA BORIS,” Oral History Transcript, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library.
  6. Sam Childers, “Presidential Valets: Confidantes of the Wardrobe,” White House History 32 (Fall 2012)
  7. “Kosta Boris, 89, Valet to President,” Washington Post, October 5, 1978, pg. C12.
Birthplace
Ustice, Serbia
Unclear from Context
Related Association Content
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/presidential-valets