Loretta C. Deans
Cite this Page
"Loretta C. Deans," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/928.
- Positions
- Maid
- Cook
- Years in President's House
- circa 1933 – 1940
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Female
- Race/Ethnicity
- Black or African American
- Presidency
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Biography
- Loretta Coleman Deans was born in Washington, D.C. on January 22, 1902. (1) At some point during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, Loretta Deans began working as a cook and maid at the White House. According to maid Lillian Rogers Parks, Deans “went often to Hyde Park [the Roosevelt’s New York home] with the Presidential White House entourage” and that “she may well have been the only White House servant to receive a gift of money from FDR’s perfectionist mother, Sara Delano” who loved Deans’ special recipe for applesauce. (2)
By 1941, Deans had left the White House for a role at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing; she remained there for several years. (3) In 1972, Deans traveled to Hyde Park with Parks to attend the dedication ceremony for the Eleanor Roosevelt Wings of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. (4) Loretta Deans died on May 31, 1981, and was buried at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Prince George’s County, Maryland. (5) - (1) Loretta Deans in the U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, Ancestry.com; Loretta C Deans in the 1940 United States Federal Census,Year: 1940; Census Place: Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia; Roll: m-t0627-00567; Page: 14B; Enumeration District: 1-414, Ancestry.com.
(2) Lillian Rogers Parks, The Roosevelts: A Family in Turmoil (Prentice-Hall, 1981), pg. Xiii, 277.
(3) “Wife Says Mother-In-Law Would Drive Her From Home,” Washington Afro-American (Washington, D.C.), August 2, 1941, pg. 3; Loretta Green in the 1950 United States Federal Census, National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: 4812; Page: 71; Enumeration District: 1-1143, Ancestry.com.
(4) Lillian Rogers Parks, The Roosevelts: A Family in Turmoil (Prentice-Hall, 1981), pg. 277; “Expansion,” FDR Presidential Library and Museum, https://www.fdrlibrary.org/library-history.
(5) “Loretta Coleman Deans,” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/186802945/loretta-deans. - Birthplace
- Washington, D.C., USA