The Butler: A Witness to History by Wil Haygood Read Free Book Online

London described Eugene Allen as “a discreet stage hand who for three decades helped keep the show running in the most important political theatre of all.” The obituaries all made mention that he had voted for Barack Obama amid the sadness of losing his wife on Election Eve.
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    S EVERAL HUNDRED PEOPLE strolled into the Greater First Baptist Church in Washington on April 8, 2010, to bid Eugene Allen farewell. The long line of men along the back row of the church were Secret Service agents. A few had gotten to know Allen during gatherings at the White House after he retired. Most had just come out of respect. There were rows of flowers near his casket. There were aging butlers and maids seated in the pews. Delores Moaney, who had worked at the White House during the Eisenhower years, recalled: “He was such acharming man. I had worked as a maid with the Eisenhower family in New York. When I got to the White House, I met Gene. You’d notice his smile right away.” The first female usher at the White House was Nancy Mitchell. She got the position in 1980. Some days inside the White House she was just a jangle of nerves, worrying she might do something wrong. “Gene—he told me to call him Gene, but I never could—calmed me down. He’d come and get me and say, ‘Nancy, let’s go get some lunch.’ And he had already set up a lovely place setting for me and him. He may have been the best man I ever met.”
    President Obama sent over a letter. It was read by the chief White House usher, Rear Admiral Stephen W. Rochon: “His life represents an important part of the American story,” the president’s letter said of Eugene Allen. It went on to cite the butler for his decades of service to the country and his “abiding patriotism.”
    The Reverend Winston C. Ridley talked about Allen and the sweep of history—the world wars away from our shores, the wars over equality inside our own borders. “Now, it’s true that some tried to stigmatize his job, that of butler. But Eugene Allen raised it to a level of excellence.”
    There were several musical numbers by the choir, among them “Jesus on the Main Line” and “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep.”
    I caught a glimpse of the suit the butler lay in before they closed his casket. It was a formal, gray evening suit. He had on white gloves, just like the elegant ones he sometimes wore at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenuewhen he was serving the high and mighty. Flowers adorned the casket. One card pinned to a bouquet of red roses read “President Obama and Michelle Obama.” The aging butlers and maids who had known Allen through the years began making their way slowly out of the church. Outside it was crisp and bright.
    It was, as President Obama said, quite an American story: a young man who had fled a southern plantation, who had made his way to the nation’s capital, who had witnessed the tumult and glory of change from a unique position, who had crossed from one century to the next while working for eight presidents. And who had also seen the once unimaginable: the swearing in of a black president.
    There was even a bit more. In late 2012 a local organization put Eugene’s home on a historic walking tour map of Washington. It was now known as “The Eugene Allen Residence.” A movie had also been completed about his life, and among its stars were Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey (playing characters inspired by Eugene and Helene), Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Robin Williams, David Oyelowo, and Cuba Gooding Jr. The movie told the story of the whole modern civil rights movement, from the vantage point of a White House butler.
    Why, Eugene Allen would have some mighty interesting stories to tell Helene.

MOVING IMAGE
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    I N THE SUMMER OF 2012, more than three dozen large trucks and trailers rolled through the narrow streets of New Orleans carrying all manner of film equipment. There was equipment to make it rain on a movie set when a scene called for rain. There were klieg