Mary F. Crowder
Cite this Page
"Mary F. Crowder," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/959.
- Position
- Lady’s Maid
- Years in President's House
- 1933 – 1945
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Female
- Race/Ethnicity
- Black or African American
- Presidency
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Biography
- Mary Frances Crowder, better known as Frankie, was born in Atlanta, Georgia around 1893. (1) Her parents sent her to Washington, D.C. to attend the National Training School for Women and Girls, founded in 1908 as one of the first vocational schools for African-American women. There, she studied dressmaking under the tutelage of the school’s founder, Nannie Helen Burroughs. (2) In 1933, Crowder made a dress for one of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s employees; impressed by what she saw, the first lady hired Crowder to serve as her personal seamstress at the White House. Mrs. Roosevelt would show Crowder “a picture of the type of dress she want[ed], [get] her to buy the goods on the Roosevelt account at the department store,” and left “the matter in her hands.” (3) Crowder was also a talented singer who often performed at local churches and events. According to the Washington Afro-American, she “organized her own quartet, and annually at Christmas time they [led] the carols at the White House after the family Christmas dinner.” White House Maid Elizabeth “Lizzie” McDuffie also recalled that Crowder would write and perform songs for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s birthday. (4)
While Frankie Crowder worked at the White House, her husband Henry Crowder was a pianist and entertainer in Belgium; after the outbreak of World War II, he was placed in a concentration camp in Germany by the Nazis but was released in 1944. (5) Frankie Crowder continued to sew for Mrs. Roosevelt until she departed the White House in 1945 after the death of the president. (6) Afterward, she worked as a dress fitter in a local dress shop. (7) Crowder died in April 1957. (8) - (1) May Belle, “Career Women of the Capital,” Washington Afro American (Washington, D.C.), February 10, 1940, pg. 7; Henry W Crowder 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: 3462; Page: 11; Enumeration District: 1-870, Ancestry.com.
(2) May Belle, “Career Women of the Capital,” Washington Afro American (Washington, D.C.), February 10, 1940, pg. 7; “Trades Hall of National Training School for Women and Girls,” National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/places/national-training-school-for-women-and-girls.htm.
(3) “Mrs. Roosevelt’s Seamstress Makes a Dress,” The Afro-American (Baltimore, Maryland), February 27, 1937, pg. 17.
(4) May Belle, “Career Women of the Capital,” Washington Afro American (Washington, D.C.), February 10, 1940, pg. 7; Lizzie McDuffie, Manuscript, “The Back Door of the White House,” circa 1960, Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/auc.090:0260.
(5) “2 Washingtonians Among Repatriates on Gripsholm,” The Afro-American (Baltimore, Maryland), March 18, 1944, pg. 3.
(6) "Roster of White House Employees, Revised, April 1, 1944," Folder: Investigative Case Files, 1934-1945, Records of the United States Secret Service, 1933-1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York.
(7) Henry W Crowder 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: 3462; Page: 11; Enumeration District: 1-870, Ancestry.com.
(8) “Mrs. Frankie Crowder Funeralized in D.C.,” Atlanta Daily World (Atlanta, Georgia), April 25, 1957, pg. 3. - Birthplace
- Atlanta, Georgia, USA
- Related Worker
- Elizabeth McDuffieHousekeeping and Laundry, 1933 – 1945