Elizabeth Moore

Cite this Page

"Elizabeth Moore," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/783.

Position: Cook
Years in President's House: 1933 – circa 1946
Legal Status: Free Person
Gender: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Black or African American
Presidencies: Franklin D. Roosevelt; Harry S. Truman
Biography: Elizabeth Moore was born in Virginia around 1901. (1) Moore cooked for Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Governor’s Mansion in Albany, New York, and joined the White House staff just after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Inauguration in March 1933. (2) There, she served as second cook under Head Cook Ida Allen, assisting with the preparation of dinners and desserts alongside other kitchen staff including Catherine Smith and Elizabeth Blake. (3) Housekeeper Henrietta Nesbitt recalled in her memoir that “Elizabeth Moore was an exception to the rule that cooks are bad tempered. She had a wonderful disposition” and that President Roosevelt “liked Elizabeth and her cooking.” (4)
In 1935, the kitchens underwent a massive renovation project that modernized the space with “electric appliances includ[ing] a 16 foot long stove, six roasting ovens, warming ovens, eight refrigerators, new dumbwaiters, a meat grinder, all sorts of mixers, five dishwashers, waffle irons, a soup kettle, a 30 gallon ice cream storage box, and a deep fry pan that could hold 5 gallons of fat.” One can imagine the impact such a renovation would have had on Elizabeth Moore’s role. (5)
By the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death in 1945, Moore had been promoted to head cook, and continued in the role when President Harry S. Truman assumed office. (6) She appears on First Lady Bess Truman’s 1946 staff Christmas list, but beyond that information about her life is scarce. (7)
: (1) Elizabeth Moore in the 1940 United States Federal Census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia; Roll: m-t0627-00568; Page: 13A; Enumeration District: 1-442, Ancestry.com.
(2) "Negro Employees at the White House Executive Office, and White House Garage as of March 31, 1933," White House Office Personnel, 1933-1935; Records of the White House Office of Budget and Accounting, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York; Victoria Henrietta Kugler Nesbitt, White House Diary (New York: Doubleday, 1949), 78; “Roosevelt Selects White House Staff,” The Oregon Daily Journal (Portland, Oregon), December 25, 1932, pg. 1.
(3) “Christmas Kitchen” Muskogee Times-Democrat (Muskogee, OK), December 26, 1935, pg. 3; Victoria Henrietta Kugler Nesbitt, White House Diary (New York: Doubleday, 1949).
(4)Victoria Henrietta Kugler Nesbitt, White House Diary (New York: Doubleday, 1949), 189, 197.
(5) Lydia Barker Tederick, “A Look at the White House Kitchens,” White House History 20 (Spring 2007), pg. 16; “Remodel Kitchen of White House, Routine is Upset,” The Springfield News-Leader (Springfield, Missouri), July 29, 1935, pg. 3; Winifred Mallon, “The White House Table,” New York Times, December 29, 1935, https://www.nytimes.com/1935/12/29/archives/the-white-house-table-in-the-new-kitchen-shining-and-electrical.html
(6) Alonzo Fields, My 21 Years in the White House (New York: Coward McCann, Inc., 1960), pg. 119.
(7) 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: Virginia, USA

Related Workers: Elizabeth Blake
Kitchen, Dining Room, Pantry, and Storeroom, circa 1931 – 1946; Ida M. Allen
Kitchen, Dining Room, Pantry, and Storeroom, 1933 – circa 1940; Victoria D. H. Nesbitt
Housekeeping and Laundry, 1933 – 1946; Catherine Smith
Kitchen, Dining Room, Pantry, and Storeroom, circa 1935