Viola Wise was born on August 24, 1905. Little is known about her early life, but In 1939, she joined Franklin D. Roosevelt’s White House staff as a maid.¹ During the Kennedy years, she also occasionally watched John F. Kennedy Jr., writing “I was particularly fond of President Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, as well as Caroline and ‘John John.’ But in case anyone asks who my favorite President and First Lady was, it was all of them.”

She worked at the White House until Ronald Reagan’s presidency, retiring in 1982 after forty-three years of service.² Later, she recalled that she had worked there, “too long, sugar,” explaining “I started in the basement cleaning toilets and worked my way up to the third floor and in the White House that’s about as far as you can go.”³

“Birthdays,” Undated, folder: folder “Birthdays (Residence Staff),” box 29, Betty Ford White House Papers, Gerald R. Ford Library, https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/sites/default/files/pdf_documents/library/document/0018/81556614.pdf. Viola Wise, Letter to Raleigh DeGeer Amyx, June 30, 1982, Heritage Auctions, https://historical.ha.com/itm/political/presidential-relics/john-f-kennedy-personally-owned-presidential-seal-cuff-links/a/6276-43345.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515.
Ibid; Dorothy McCardle, “Spots– Now You See ‘Em, Now You Don’t,” Washington Post, June 18, 1978, pg. H1.
Barbara Gamarekian, “Reunion Echoes Bygone Years at White House,” New York Times, June 25, 1983, pg. 5.

Birthplace

Unclear from Context