White House Historical Association

Mary Anderson

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"Mary Anderson," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whitehouseworkers.org/Detail/workers/1051.
Position
Pantrywoman
Years in President's House
circa 1945 – circa 1953
Gender
Female
Race/Ethnicity
Black or African American
Presidency
Harry S. Truman
Biography
Mary Anderson (née Ficklin) was born around 1912 in Amissville, Virginia.1 Her father, James Strother Ficklin, was born into slavery and later became a free man.2 Her brothers Charles and John Ficklin worked full-time as butlers at the White House, and during the Truman administration, Mary and her sister Flossie Malachi were “on-call, brought in to perform various domestic tasks related to social and residential activities in the White House.” Another brother, Samuel, was also a part-time worker on the staff from 1941-1991.3 Further information about her life is limited, but by 1978, she lived in Hillcrest Heights, Maryland.4
  1. Flossie B Ficklin in the 1930 United States Federal Census, Year: 1930; Census Place: Jackson, Rappahannock, Virginia; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 0004; FHL microfilm: 2342191, Ancestry.com.
  2. John Wrory Ficklin, An Usual Path: Three Generations from Slavery to the White House (White House Historical Association, 2026).
  3. John Wrory Ficklin, An Usual Path: Three Generations from Slavery to the White House (White House Historical Association, 2026), 48.
  4. “Charles Ficklin, Was White House Maitre d' Hotel,” Washington Post, March 8, 1978, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1978/03/09/charles-ficklin-was-white-house-maitre-d-hotel/164713f2-7cb6-46b5-bdbb-15ec43af4767/.
Birthplace
Amissville, Virginia, USA
Burial Place
Unclear from Context
Blue markers indicate birthplaces and green markers indicate burial places. Black markers are used for places of both birth and burial.
Related Workers
Flossie F. Malachi
Pantrywoman, circa 1945 – circa 1953
Charles E. Ficklin
Butler, 1939 – 1965
John W. Ficklin
Butler, 1939 – 1983
Samuel L. Ficklin
Butler, Dishwasher, 1941 – 1991
Related Association Content
An Unusual Path: Three Generations From Slavery to the White House
Author John Wrory Ficklin discusses his book, "An Unusual Path: Three Generations From Slavery to the White House." Ficklin, who retired in 2015 after forty years of White House service, shares his family’s remarkable story and how the Ficklins became a multi-generational institution at the White House.