White House Staff: Then & Now Alonzo Fields ALONZO FIELDS White House Chief Butler 1931-53
Alonzo Fields was born in Lyles Station, Indiana, a small, all-black community about 120 miles east of St. Louis, Missouri. His father owned the local general store, directed a brass band (all black) that played for local events, and eventually worked in Washington, D. C. as a janitor for the Post Office Department. Alonzo's mother contributed to the family income by running a boarding house for railroad workers. From his dad, Alonzo learned much about what would become a life-long passion -- music. Like his father, Alonzo played in a brass band and taught others to play brass instruments. Alonzo had a beautiful singing voice that was praised by his teachers. His goal of achieving success as a concert singer seemed certain until money for continuing his education ran out. With a wife and child to support, he took a position as a butler at the White House in 1931. Instead of the job being a temporary as he planned, Alonzo found White House employment suited him. He eventually would be promoted to the position of Chief Butler.
He wrote a book, My 21 Years in the White House, detailing his experiences of working for four presidents and their families. Alonzo knew that his job gave him the chance to see history being made every day, so he kept a journal. He did not want to forget the events he worked and the people he met. He also saved some souvenirs from important functions he planned or was invited to attend. In his journal he recorded his personal observations of the presidents and their families, and the important visitors he served, and in some cases, conversed with. His position brought him into close contact with important people like Winston Churchill, Princess Elizabeth of England, Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, not to mention the presidential cabinet members, senators, representatives, and Supreme Court Justices. He was witness to presidential decision-making at critical times in our history -- the attack on Pearl Harbor, the death of Franklin Roosevelt, the desegregation of the military, and the outbreak of hostilities in Korea.
The job of Chief Butler meant that Fields was responsible for keeping track of all White House tablecloths, napkins, silverware, glassware, and china. Also, he made menu suggestions for important state dinners, receptions, teas, and family dinners to be approved by the First Lady. He supervised the chefs and servers. He had to be prepared to serve many people with little advance notice. He had to learn what would and would not please each president and his family.
Alonzo appreciated that he was seeing America's history up-close and firsthand. As he often told his staff, "... remember that we are helping to make history. We have a small part, ... but they can't do much here without us. They've got to eat, you know."
Alonzo Fields left White House service in February 1953. He lived to be 94 years of age.
Reference: Fields, Alonzo. My 21 years in the White House. New York: Coward-McCann, 1960.
[Food budget] Alonzo Fields Papers, Courtesy of the Truman Presidential Museum and Library.
[Menus] Alonzo Fields Papers, Courtesy of the Truman Presidential Museum and Library.
Alonzo Fields served four different Presidents. He started in the White house during the last year of President Hoover, then the entire Roosevelt and Truman eras – and the first months of the Eisenhower Presidency. He resigned because his wife became ill and he moved to Boston where he also found another job.
Alonso Fields was a butler and it would seem there were a lot of them in the White House having many different roles. Alonso Fields was concerned with setting up the regular dinners (breakfast, lunch and supper) and also special occasions of which there were many.
There are a lot of amusing anecdotes in this narrative. Alonso met many different dignitaries – the King of England, Churchill whom he liked, Molotov who he liked much less.
The Hoover White House was orderly, sedate and stuffy – the Roosevelt White House was the opposite! President Truman was the most friendly and sincere of Presidents.
Its’ a short book, readable and entertaining. Alonso Fields lived a long life dying in 1994 at the age of 93.
A wonderful memoir of Mr. Fields time spent working as head butler in the White House. His writing is simple and a very interesting insight of the presidential administrations he served under and the well known people he met while on duty. I found him very humble and loyal, not maliciously unkind or gossipy.
Alonzo Fields worked at the White house as the head butler in the Kitchen. He worked there from 1931-1952. This book was originally written in 1960. He was responsible for planning meals for Herbert Hoover and his wife, The Roosevelts, Trumans and for a short While Eisenhowers. He also met and served meals to very famous people word wide. Such as Winston Churchill, Kings and Queens, famous actors etc. This is not a tell all. Mr. Fields manages to keep it "nice" but still shares about what the likes and dislikes of the presidents and their wives. A very interesting read.
I started looking for this book after a friend saw the play and really enjoyed it. The book was the last memoir written before it was prohibited to write about personal experiences in the White House. This is a very tame memoir, nothing like what might be written today. It is an interesting story about how the White House ran during the 50's and 60's.
A great man who rose above hardship to achieve a place in American history.
It sounds absurd to say that reading a memoir could make you feel humbled, but that's the effect Alonzo Fields' book had on me. The strength of his character was such that he remained dignified in the face of prejudice, overlooking the bigots and appreciating those who treated him as an equal. He was a unapologetic patriot even though he was middle-aged before his country recognized him as a full citizen.
He grew up in a "colored community" in Indiana and as a child heard former slaves talk about life on southern plantations. He longed to be a concert singer, but the need to support his family led him to become a butler at the home of the president of Massachusetts Academy of Technology in Cambridge. Connections made there led to a job as butler in the administration of Herbert Hoover. In 1931, with the Great Depression in full swing, the security of a government job was impossible to turn down.
He talks respectfully about the Hoovers, who were reserved and demanded that the traditional standards of formality be observed at all times. They weren't friendly people, but they treated the staff well. The huge Roosevelt family brought informality to Washington. They appreciated the hard work of the staff and said so. But it was the Trumans with whom Fields established a warm relationship and he doesn't hesitate to say that Harry Truman was his favorite president.
Fields' story must be read in the context of American's racial history. Washington DC is a southern town and segregation was rigidly enforced. Before the Roosevelts, there were both blacks and whites on the White House staff, with the whites taking the better jobs and blacks being relegated to lower positions. There were "white" and "colored" dining rooms for the staff. Fields tells a hilarious story of old Calvin Coolidge protesting because "his" maple syrup was restricted to the white servants. It's far from racial equality, but he DID make sure that inequity was corrected. The Roosevelts solved the problem by eliminating whites on the staff and hiring only blacks,
So why did Fields prefer the very southern Trumans to the New York-bred Roosevelts? He realized that to the Roosevelts, the staff were simply servants, not equals. The Trumans were more open to relationships with the people who worked for them. Harry and Bess Truman startled the staff by carefully introducing them to everyone who visited the White House, including royalty. I was amused to read that Fields thought highly of Harry Truman's mother, a staunch southern apologist and segregationist. When Harry Truman integrated the armed forces, he's reported to have said ruefully, "I'm going to do something that's going to make Mamma mad as hell." Typically, he overcame his fear of his formidable mother to do what he believed was right.
And while Harry Truman and Alonzo Fields were from different races, they had one very important thing in common - both were devoted husbands to strong women and both were doting fathers to a daughter who was their only child. Fields claims that he and Harry bonded while commiserating with each other about being a "minority" in a family dominated by females and I don't doubt it.
One of my favorite books is J.B. West's wonderful "Upstairs at the White House." He says it was the 6'4", 200+lb Fields walking around upstairs that caused the chandeliers to rattle during a function in the Blue Room. This incident led to an investigation that showed that the White House had dangerous structural faults and needed to be gutted and rebuilt. For the record, Fields claims to be 6' 3 1/2" and he never mentions his weight. Who can blame him?
This book is a fascinating look at American history. One reviewer called it "reserved" and it is, but there's some great stories. Even today, historians study it as a valuable "primary source" of White House history and of American history. That's fitting because Alonzo Fields was as great a man as any of the presidents he served and much better than some we've had.
As an avid reader of history, I had hoped for so much more from this book.
Yes, Mr. Fields was - in 1930s to early 1950s reality - a high-end servant. But he was also a thoughtful, intelligent man who had the opportunity to witness history and the leaders who helped make it.
So why then did he spend pages on what Churchill ate for breakfast but only one page on his reaction to the death of President Roosevelt, or on the impact the assassination attempt on President Truman had on him and the staff he managed?
Perhaps, it had something to do with the plight of African Americans of his generation and how they survived by accommodating the white people in powerful positions. I feel sure Mr. Fields was in a position to shed light on these men in high places - for good and bad.
But he was raised and survived but keeping those opinions to himself. Even in his personally-penned story, he seemingly felt obligated to be oh so careful in what he revealed. I understand his reticence in the era in which he wrote his book.
But in our era, we are less informed by his self-editing. We could have learned a lot more from him, I think.
I cannot seem to read enough about what life was like inside the White House for various presidents and their families. Who better to share insights than the staff who once worked there. Alonzo Fields came across as a kind, hard-working man. I've heard his name mentioned in many other White House resources, so it was nice to finally read his memoir. Unfortunately, I found it to be equally less detailed and poignant than another well-known memoir, "Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies"by J.B. West, which I recently read and absolutely adored. Still, it was fun to read between the lines as to which president he liked working for the best, as it was the same man he said really saw him as a human being and treated him with respect, Harry Truman. Also, almost most fun of all to read were his brief ending comments on his dislike of the changes Jacqueline Kennedy was making to the White House, and her "discoveries" of furniture and development of a "cataloging system" for the china, both of which Fields said already existed before she started her renovation.
Good read. Relatively short, with interesting anecdotes about the Presidents he knew, their families, and a number of foreign leaders he interacted with (especially Winston Churchill). Really shows the human side of Harry Truman, who he got to know best personally. Also a funny bit about Fields's first impression of Richard Nixon when he became Vice President in 1953. There are many moments that I wish he would've gone into with more detail, but as-is it's an invaluable piece of history. Works well as a companion piece to J.B. West's 'Upstairs at the White House', which also covers Roosevelt and Truman (in addition to Ike, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon) but from the perspective of an usher instead of as a butler.
Mr. Fields is as much a diplomat as anyone in the UN. He never said "I liked this person and did not like that person, " but just that he had different levels of understanding. It is my feeling that the people who assist the First Family, whether they are an Aide or a member of their Cabinet or the person that brings them tea at the end of the day are all important to the office. The author is a man of great class and discernment, tact and generosity. I liked reading his side of stories that I'd seen in other books from other points of view. Even though it was relatively short, I'm glad to own it.
A very short book, with a bunch of menus at the end. Still, I wanted to be sure I read it, as both Upstairs at the White House and Backstairs at the White House mentioned Alonzo Fields. If you want to know more about the African-Americans who have worked in the White House, and about the domestic life of the White House in the early 20th century, this is a primary source. Fields is definitely a strong character who put his stamp on the White House when he was there. We don't learn much about his working life and inner thoughts even though it sounds like we do, as he writes with the self-elusion that was characteristic of such memoirs. Still an important piece of White House history.
A Glimpse of the Past: walking through White House history
I found it fascinating to have this “behind the scenes” look at the White House, the Presidents and First Ladies and their families. Though most of this time predates my life (born in1950), I remember many of the names from other reading and my study of history. The verbal pictures Mr. Fields created are very good and intriguing.
If you’re a student of history and/or the Presidents, this is a “should read”.
I am a history buff so I always enjoy reading an insider's account of the personal lives or workings of historical figures. This account of life in the White House was interesting. Outsiders take for granted the minutia of details and scheduling it requires to host all the dignitaries and family members . It is obvious Mr. Fields was devoted to his work and had a passion and pride in the execution of his duties. I would recommend this book to others.
I like pretty much anything that has to do with White House history and this book does not disappoint. From the many jobs Mr. Fields had to do to his personal relationships with the First Families he helps us see far beyond what we think about politics and helps us see that this is more than a place for governmental activities and large dinner parties with Heads of State but it is the home for the current president and his family trying to live their lives in a bubble.
This is an interesting look into the inner workings of the White House from the house staff point of view. This is definitely not a tell-all or gosspiy book. Alonzo Fields kept is dignified and respectful, which I'm sure was his working demeanor. Plus, society was different in those days. This book is partially his biography, but also an interesting peek into how the White House ran during the 50's and 60's. There was a lot more pomp and circumstance than I ever suspected.
I enjoyed this book so much.....but I have a fondness for tradition and a love for the way things were. Alonzo seems to me to be a man very proud of the job he did and rightly so! I have read many books on how the White House was taken care of by these splendid and devoted people. This was one of the best.
I enjoy reading anything about the behind the scenes of White House life. So in that regard, I enjoyed this book. Sometimes the timelines got me a little confused, but the anecdotes were fascinating and I enjoyed Mr Field’s story obvious respect for the house and the office. I wonder what he would think of some of the more recent occupants.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I liked reading about the day to day of the White House and the delicate nature of relationships within it. What a unique way to tell a life story.
I enjoyed this book by Alonzo Fields about his years of service to the White House. His stories about the dignitaries and the meals served is amazing. But more unbelievable is the food eaten by the families.
This is the second book I have read written by White House help and it's surprising how similar their opinions coincided. Very much enjoyed his descriptions Ana analyses
A first hand account of the years 1931-1952 thru the eyes of a staff member. I am glad he kept a journal of events so as to give accurancy to the story.
Interesting account from the inside of the White House. While the story was told in a generally chronological order, it seemed choppy and scattered. Interesting but I wished there was more detail.
I enjoyed the book, I knew nothing about these First Ladies, except Mrs. Kennedy, I was a teenager then. Mamie was a surprise. Not much about Pat Nixon. But it was a kind peak back in time.