Margaret Sykes
Cite this Page
"Margaret Sykes," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/924.
- Position
- Maid
- Years in President's House
- circa 1939 – 1940
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Female
- Race/Ethnicity
- Black or African American
- Presidency
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Biography
- Margaret Sykes was born in North Carolina around 1912. (1) She was hired at the Roosevelt White House to replace longtime maid Maggie Rogers, who retired in 1939. (2) Her duties included making beds, dusting, mending linens, and cleaning the Residence under the supervision of housekeeper Henrietta Nesbitt. (3) Sykes’s tenure of service at the White House is unclear, but maid Lillian Rogers Parks wrote that “Eleanor took a liking to [Sykes], helping her get fine jobs in the welfare field after the White House years.” (4) Further information about her life and career is limited.
- (1) Margaret Sykes in the 1940 United States Federal Census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia; Roll: m-t0627-00568; Page: 21A; Enumeration District: 1-442, Ancestry.com.
(2) Lillian Rogers Parks, The Roosevelts: A Family in Turmoil (Prentice-Hall, 1981), pg. xiii.
(3) Victoria Henrietta Kugler Nesbitt, White House Diary (New York: Doubleday, 1949), 86.
(4) Lillian Rogers Parks, The Roosevelts: A Family in Turmoil (Prentice-Hall, 1981), pg. xiii. - Birthplace
- North Carolina, USA
- Related Workers
- Maggie RogersHousekeeping and Laundry, 1909 – 1939
- Victoria D. H. NesbittHousekeeping and Laundry, 1933 – 1946