White House Historical Association

Charles K. Claunch

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"Charles K. Claunch," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/775.
Positions
Usher
Naval Aide
Years in President's House
1929 – 1954
Legal Status
Free Person
Gender
Male
Race/Ethnicity
White
Presidencies
Herbert Hoover
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Harry S. Truman
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Biography
Charles K. Claunch was born on October 7, 1899 in Illinois.1 Claunch served in the United States Navy and was placed on duty at the White House beginning in 1929. In 1938, he moved into the role of assistant usher.2 In the role, he assisted the chief usher in planning and executing events, coordinating the first family’s calendar, and managing White House projects, including the Truman Renovation. In 1943, his wife, Lilla, died; in 1944 he remarried fellow White House worker Mary Lamback, who served as a telephone operator on the White House switchboard.3 In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Claunch to the post of government secretary to the U.S. Virgin Islands. The appointment was met with criticisms from locals, who critiqued his inexperience and lack of connection to the islands.4 He resigned his post in 1957, citing “ill health.”5 Claunch died on November 9, 1978, and is buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Florida.6
  1.  “Charles Kenneth Claunch,” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/50994147/charles_kenneth-claunch.
  2. “White House Aide Gets Islands Post,” New York Times, MArch 26, 1954, pg. 10; “White House Changes,” Washington Post, April 5, 1938, pg. X3.
  3. Eleanor Roosevelt, "My Day, January 13, 1943," The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Digital Edition (2017), accessed 1/22/2025, https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydoc.cfm?_y=1943&_f=md056393; “Romance in the White House,” Boston Globe, December 12, 1944, pg. 31.
  4. “White House Aide Gets Islands Post,” New York Times, March 26, 1954, pg. 10; “Virgin Islanders Denounce,” Jet, April 15, 1954, pg. 6.
  5. “Virgin Islands Aide Resigns Post,” Stockton Evening and Sunday Record (California), May 2, 1957, pg. 45.
  6. “Charles Kenneth Claunch,” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/50994147/charles_kenneth-claunch.
Birthplace
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Greenwood Cemetery
Related Association Content
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-white-house-chief-usher