White House Historical Association

Phillips P. Brooks

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"Phillips P. Brooks," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/771.
Positions
Pantryman
Butler
Houseman
Years in President's House
1929 – 1959
Legal Status
Free Person
Gender
Male
Race/Ethnicity
Black or African American
Presidencies
Herbert Hoover
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Harry S. Truman
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Biography
Phillips Peter Brooks was born in West Virginia in 1904.1 Through Brooks’ association with the Republican National Committee, Herbert Hoover hired him as his private personal messenger. Brooks continued to work for Hoover until his election to the presidency, and joined the White House staff in 1929 as a pantry man and butler.2 In 1931, Brooks was diagnosed with tuberculosis and spent a year away from the White House at a local sanitarium.3 Mrs. Hoover wrote him a letter during his recovery: “My dear Brooks: We all miss you very much at the White House and so regret that you are having this illness…Hope that you will be well again and back with us before many weeks.”4 The Hoovers hired his wife, Katurah, full-time as a White House maid to offset their loss of wages in his absence.5 Brooks made a complete recovery and continued to work at the White House– even after being transferred to a role in the Treasury Department, he worked part-time at State Dinners through the 1959 State Dinner of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. In his many decades of work at the White House, he was a part of major moments– from delivering food to Bonus Army demonstrators to serving lunch when the news of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor arrived.6 Brooks passed away on December 12, 1984, and was interred at Maryland National Memorial Park.7
  1. Phillips Peter Brooks in the U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Wwii Draft Registration Cards For District of Columbia, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 27, Ancestry.com.
  2. Oral History Interview with Katurah and Phillips P. Brooks, September 1, 1970, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library.
  3. Oral History Interview with Katurah and Phillips P. Brooks, September 1, 1970, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library.
  4. Lou Henry Hoover to Phillips Brooks, Letter, in Oral History Interview with Katurah and Phillips P. Brooks, September 1, 1970, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library.
  5. Ibid, see also Xmas List 1931, Lou Henry Hoover Papers, Subject Files, White House Christmas 1931, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library; White House Employees, 1932, Lou Henry Hoover Papers, Subject Files, White House Christmas 1932, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library.
  6. Oral History Interview with Katurah and Phillips P. Brooks, September 1, 1970, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library.
  7. “Brooks, Phillips P.,” Washington Post, December 13, 1984, pg. B6.
Birthplace
West Virginia, USA
Maryland National Memorial Park
Related Workers
Ellis J. Sampson
Kitchen, Dining Room, Pantry, and Storeroom, 1929 – 1933
Katurah Brooks
Katurah S. Brooks
Kitchen, Dining Room, Pantry, and Storeroom, Housekeeping and Laundry, 1931 – 1939