White House Historical Association

Elizabeth Blake

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"Elizabeth Blake," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/780.
Position
Cook
Years in President's House
circa 1931 – 1946
Legal Status
Free Person
Gender
Female
Race/Ethnicity
Black or African American
Presidencies
Herbert Hoover
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Harry S. Truman
Biography
Elizabeth Blake was born in Washington, D.C. around 1911.1 She first appears in documentation as a cook on the White House kitchen staff in 1931.2 In 1935, the White House Kitchen underwent a major modernization, including new stainless steel features and an electric stove, and newspapers reported that “the stoves will mean learning new ways of cooking to the …staff, Ida Allen, chief cook, and her assistants, Catherine Smith, Elizabeth Moore, and Elizabeth Blake.”3 A 1946 White House staff Christmas list is the last known record of her work on staff; it is possible that she worked there beyond that year, but documentation is scarce.4
  1.  Elizabeth Blake in the 1940 United States Federal Census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia; Roll: m-t0627-00564; Page: 61A; Enumeration District: 1-334, Ancestry.com.
  2. Ibid. White House Employees, 1932, Lou Henry Hoover Papers, Subject Files, White House Christmas 1932, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library; Xmas List 1931, Lou Henry Hoover Papers, Subject Files, White House Christmas 1931, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library.
  3. “Remodel Kitchen of White House, Routine is Upset,” Springfield Daily News, July 29, 1935, pg. 3; Winifred Mallon, “The White House Table,” New York Times, December 29, 1935, pg. 13, https://www.nytimes.com/1935/12/29/archives/the-white-house-table-in-the-new-kitchen-shining-and-electrical.html.  
  4. Elizabeth Blake in the 1940 United States Federal Census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia; Roll: m-t0627-00564; Page: 61A; Enumeration District: 1-334, Ancestry.com ; "Roster of White House Employees, Revised, April 1, 1944,"Folder: Investigative Case Files, 1934-1945, Records of the United States Secret Service, 1933-1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York; White House Staff Christmas Gift List of Bess W. Truman, 1946, Christmas Lists Subject File, Bess W. Truman Papers, Harry S. Truman Library, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/139308529. 
Birthplace
Washington, D.C., USA
Unclear from Context
Related Workers
Ida M. Allen
Kitchen, Dining Room, Pantry, and Storeroom, 1933 – circa 1940
Catherine Smith
Kitchen, Dining Room, Pantry, and Storeroom, circa 1935
Elizabeth Moore
Kitchen, Dining Room, Pantry, and Storeroom, 1933 – circa 1946