Read The Butler: A Witness to History Online
Authors: Wil Haygood
Sitting on the left is the beautiful and young Helene.
Eugene Allen, left, in his first year on the job with a fellow butler, 1952.
A well-dressed butler inside the Truman White House.
Allen serving guests on the White House lawn during the Eisenhower years.
Eugene Allen, the man in the background.
In the White House pantry, where it all began.
The displays always had a look of opulence. Allen stands at center alongside the chef.
Always, the flowers were in bloom.
The hours were long, but he never complained and never missed a day of work in thirty-four years.
A little two-step inside the White House.
The day after the Kennedy assassination, Eugene Allen tries to lift White House spirits by having an impromptu party for the Kennedy children and their friends.
Eugene Allen turns photographer to snap a picture of Martin Luther King Sr., known in the movement as Daddy King.
Stars like Peter Lawford would often send Eugene Allen autographed pictures following their visit to the White House.
Life inside the LBJ White House as the sixties near an end.