White House Historical Association

Sarah Clerklin

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"Sarah Clerklin," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/779.
Position
Kitchen Assistant
Years in President's House
1929 – circa 1933
Legal Status
Free Person
Gender
Female
Race/Ethnicity
White
Presidency
Herbert Hoover
Biography
Sarah Clerklin was born in Ireland in 1910, and immigrated to the United States in 1929.1 That year, she was hired at the White House to serve as a maid in the kitchen, meaning that she probably assisted with cooking and cleaning the space.2 She is documented at the White House through the end of the Hoover administration in 1933 ; further details about her life are scarce.3
  1. Sarah Clerklin in the 1930 United States Federal Census, Year: 1930; Census Place: Washington, District of Columbia; Page: 15A; Enumeration District: 0066; FHL microfilm: 2340028, Ancestry.com.
  2. Employees on Duty at the Executive Office, 1929, Lou Henry Hoover Papers, Subject Files, White House Christmas 1929, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library; 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.
  3. "Servants on the White House Staff," 1933, Folder: White House Functions: Records and Correspondence, Office of Social Entertainments, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York.
Birthplace
Ireland
Unclear from Context