White House Historical Association

John Pustka

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"John Pustka," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whitehouseworkers.org/Detail/workers/1141.
Positions
Florist
Grounds Laborer
Years in President's House
circa 1957 – 1969
Gender
Male
Race/Ethnicity
White
Presidencies
Dwight D. Eisenhower
John F. Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson
Richard M. Nixon
Biography

John Pustka was born in Czechoslovakia on June 24, 1902.1 It is currently unclear when he moved to the United States. He first appears on staff at the White House in a 1957 newspaper photograph depicting the building after a snowstorm. Pustka was photographed shoveling the driveway of the White House.2 According to a Kennedy-era staff list from 1961, Pustka worked in the Bouquet Room creating floral arrangements for White House events.3

During Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency, Pustka had the additional responsibility of managing the first family’s dogs in the mornings, while Electrician Traphes Bryant watched them in the afternoon. Johnson’s beagles, Him and Her, and his collie, Blanco, lived in the Bouquet Room alongside the florists at work, and Pustka trained, fed, bathed, and walked them.4 

Pustka worked at the White House until his death on June 2, 1969. He was buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland.5

  1. The city of his birth has not been identified at this time, but he spoke Slovak, suggesting he was in the present-day Slovakia area. John Pustka, U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Wwii Draft Registration Cards For District of Columbia, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 186, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2238/records/6439674.
  2. Untitled, The Monitor (McAllen, Texas), December 5, 1957, pg. 18.
  3. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis Personal Papers. Textual Materials. Letitia Baldrige Files. Christmas: 1961 (2 of 2 folders). JBKOPP-SF037-009. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
  4. Traphes Bryant, Dog Days at the White House (Macmillan Publishing Co., 1975), 89; John Carmody, “President’s Pups Make Mark on White House,” Washington Post, May 22, 1966, pg. B1.
  5. “Pustka, John,” Washington Post, June 3, 1969, pg. C4. 
Birthplace
Slovakia
Burial Place
Cedar Hill Cemetery
Blue markers indicate birthplaces and green markers indicate burial places. Black markers are used for places of both birth and burial.