Samuel L. Ficklin

Samuel Lollar Ficklin was born on March 26, 1923, in Amissville, Virginia.¹ His father, James Strother Ficklin, was born into slavery and later became a free man. Samuel Ficklin and his siblings spent their childhood working on the family farm in Amissville.² His brothers, Charles and John, both went on to work at the White House, and helped Sam secure a part-time pot washing job there after his high school graduation in 1941.³ He also worked full-time as a toolmaker at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. and was the first African American to hold this role; meanwhile, he worked on call for White House events as needed. 

Other family members including his sisters, Flossie Malachi and Mary Anderson, took on part-time White House roles, as well. During World War II, Samuel Ficklin was a gunner's mate in the U.S. Navy, and afterward he returned to part-time work at the White House, which he continued through 1991.⁴ He did so on top of a full-time position as a machinist/engineer at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing; he was also the first Black man to hold this role.⁵ 

Outside of work, he was a member of many social clubs and in 1987, St. John Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, where he served as chairman of the steward board, named him man of the year.⁶ He died on August 27, 2000, and was buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland.⁷