Willie Collins
Cite this Page
"Willie Collins," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/919.
- Position
- Pantrywoman
- Years in President's House
- circa 1945
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Female
- Presidency
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Biography
- Willie Collins worked as a pantry girl at the White House in 1945 during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. This staff position is responsible for keeping items stocked and up to date, assisting with cold dishes like salads or charcuterie, and helping with service for formal meals. Little is known about her early life, the exact duration of her employment, or her activities after leaving the White House. Maid Lillian Rogers Parks recounted a notable moment in Collins’s career, remembering how Collins called her at her apartment to deliver the news of President Roosevelt’s death in 1945 after Parks had left work earlier that day. (1)
- (1) Lillian Rogers Parks, My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House (New York: Fleet Publishing Corporation, 1961) 272.
- Birthplace
- Unclear from Context