Wilson Roosevelt Jerman

Wilson Roosevelt Jerman (January 21, 1929 – May 16, 2020) was an American butler who served 11 different U.S. presidents in the White House. He was one of the White House's longest serving employees except from 1993-2003

Biography Jerman was born in Seaboard, North Carolina, in 1929, the son of a farm worker. He dropped out of school at the age of 12 to work on a farm. In 1955, Jerman moved to Washington, D.C. and worked as a caterer before being hired as a cleaner by the White House in 1957 during the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Jerman was promoted to butler under John F. Kennedy; Jackie Kennedy gave Jerman two signed paintings that he hung in his home.

To commemorate his 50-plus years of service in the White House, President Obama presented Jerman with a series of plaques depicting all 11 presidents he served. First Lady Michelle Obama included a picture of her and the president in an elevator with Jerman in her best-selling memoir, Becoming.

Jerman was married twice and had five children. His first wife, Gladys, died in 1966; Lyndon B. Johnson asked his personal physician to treat her before she died. Jerman's second wife, Helen, died in the 1990s.

Jerman died from complications of COVID-19 on May 16, 2020, at the age of 91, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Virginia.