1. Eugene Charles Allen was an American waiter and butler who worked for the US government at the White House for 34 years until he retired as the head butler in 1986.
13 Facts About Eugene Allen
1. 2.
Eugene Allen was born in Buckingham County, Virginia and raised on Shirland Farm, a sharecropping plantation near Scottsville.
3.
Eugene Allen worked as a waiter for many years, in "whites-only resorts and country clubs", including The Homestead resort in Hot Springs, Virginia, and a club in Washington.
4.
Eugene Allen started in the White House in 1952 as a "pantry man", a job which involved basic tasks such as dish washing, stocking and polishing silverware.
5.
Eugene Allen was particularly affected by the murder of President Kennedy in 1963.
6.
Eugene Allen finally attained the most prestigious rank of butlers serving in the White House, Maitre d'hotel, in 1981, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan.
7.
Eugene Allen was the first White House butler ever to be invited as a guest to a state dinner.
8.
Eugene Allen retired in 1986, after he worked for Harry S Truman, Dwight D Eisenhower, John F Kennedy, Lyndon B Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan, a total of eight presidents.
9.
Eugene Allen was married to his wife, Helene, for 65 years.
10.
Eugene Allen died of kidney failure at the Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park, Maryland on March 31,2010.
11.
Eugene Allen came to public attention when a 2008 article about him and his wife, by journalist Wil Haygood, entitled "A Butler Well Served by This Election", was published in The Washington Post shortly after the 2008 presidential election.
12.
Eugene Allen shuffled around to her side of the bed.
13.
Eugene Allen's life was the inspiration for the 2013 film The Butler.