George F. Benton

George Francis Benton was born on October 23, 1903, in Charleston, West Virginia.¹ By 1910, he had moved with his family to Maryland.² According to the 1940 Census, Benton worked as a laborer for the Works Progress Administration, one of the agencies created during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program to combat the Great Depression.³ It is unclear exactly when he began working at the White House, but records show him employed there as a carpenter by 1943 during Roosevelt’s presidency.⁴ 

Benton appears in several memoirs of fellow White House workers. White House Maid Lillian Rogers Parks mentions him in her memoir when describing how First Lady Mamie Eisenhower prohibited staff from using nicknames. While doing so, Parks mentioned that Benton was known as “Tojo.” Parks states: “I remember the time the carpenter’s daughter came and asked for Mr. Benton. Not ‘till she added, ‘He’s known here as ‘Tojo,’’ did they snap to and find him.”⁵ 

Benton is also mentioned in the memoir of White House Chief Usher J.B. West when discussing a State Dinner hosted at the White House for Queen Elizabeth II of England in 1957. The dinner took place in the State Dining Room, after which the guests were to move to other rooms in the Residence before returning to the Dining Room for a champagne reception. West instructed Benton and the other carpenters to wait outside on the terrace until the dinner ended, at which point they were to enter the Dining Room to dismantle the tables and then set up the room for the champagne reception. Benton and the carpenters were told to wait until they heard silence in the Dining Room as their cue that the dinner had ended and they could enter. However, during the dinner, the Queen made a toast but her voice was so quiet that the entire room hushed to hear her, which the carpenters mistook for their cue. They tried to enter the room but found that West had locked the door, prompting them to bang against it several times. As J.B. West states: “When the toasts were finally over, and the guests had all filed out to the Red and Green Rooms for coffee and liqueurs, I ran to unlock the door. ‘We thought you weren’t coming!’ exclaimed ‘Tojo’ Benton. ‘We thought we’d have to bust in.’ When I told him how perfect his timing nearly was, his face turned as white as his carpenter's overalls. ‘You mean I nearly broke in on the Queen of England!’ he said. ‘God save her!’”⁶ 

It is currently unclear how long Benton worked at the White House, though he was there at least until 1961, as he is included on a staff list compiled that year under First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.⁷ Benton passed away in 1965.⁸