Former White House workers reminisce while
looking through a photo album at the 1983
staff reunion picnic. George Tames/The
New York Times/Redux.
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A "Family" Reunion
A
reunion picnic on June 24, 1983, was the
scene of hugging, kissing, and backslapping,
as former White House domestic staff greeted
one another with laughter, emotion, and plenty
of memories.1
The
1980s began a series of reunions of former
White House workers. Retired chief usher
J. B. West was the organizer of the 1983
event. Lillian Rogers Parks, a former maid
and seamstress, shared stories with the widow
of Arthur Prettyman, valet to Franklin Delano
Roosevelt. Heinz and Shirley Bender recalled
their White House romance, which bloomed
when he was the pastry chef and she was a
housekeeper. "After he made Tricia Nixon's
wedding cake, we got married and had no cake,
but I forgave him," Shirley Bender told
a reporter.2
Hoping to see "a lot of old friends," Luci
Johnson Nugent, daughter of President Lyndon
B. Johnson, arrived with her daughter.3 Howard
Arrington recounted his favorite story about
the shower jets that President Johnson had
ordered him to install: "He wanted
[them] to hit all parts of his body with the
same force. . . . Rex Scouten in the usher's
office got in the shower to test it out, and
it pinned Rex right to the wall."4
1 Barbara Gamarekian, "Reunion Echoes
Bygone Years at White House," The
New York Times, June 25, 1983: 5.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid. |
