Hassel R. Adams

Little is currently known about Hassel Ray Adams outside of his employment as a gardener at the White House during the presidencies of Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. As a gardener, Adams helped maintain the White House Grounds by landscaping and caring for the ornamental and practical gardens at the White House.

Adams was born in Dickenson County, Virginia, on February 7, 1934.¹ He served in the U.S. military in the 1950s.² Most of what we know about his work at the White House comes from two stories that circulated widely in newspapers in 1961. The first news story involved the Inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in January of that year. The night before the Inauguration saw heavy snowfall in Washington, D.C. Early on Inauguration morning, Adams drove a snowplow to clear a walking path from the North Portico of the White House to Pennsylvania Avenue so that outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower could greet incoming President Kennedy at the White House before heading to the Capitol for the ceremony. Numerous newspapers printed a photograph of Adams using the snowplow.³

The second news story was about the arrival at the White House of a dog named Pushinka, gifted to the Kennedys by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Pushinka and the Kennedys’ dog Charlie slept in the Flower Shop at the White House, where Adams and the other gardeners and florists worked. Numerous newspapers announcing the arrival of Pushinka circulated a photograph of Adams and fellow White House Gardener Robert M. Redmond holding Charlie and Pushinka.⁴ 

Adams appeared on a list of White House Residence Staff members compiled in 1961 under President Kennedy, but on no other known staff lists.⁵ Adams passed away on May 26, 1998, and was buried at the Powers Family Cemetery in Pound, Virginia.⁶