Elizabeth S. Hogue

Elisabeth S. Hogue, known as “Bette,” was born on October 10, 1923, in New York.¹ By 1950 she was living in Arlington, Virginia, and working as a stenographer for the Department of Defense.²

Hogue likely began working at the White House in 1963; the first known reference to her work there is from a list of the Residence Staff compiled immediately after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in November of that year. The list referenced Hogue as “on assignment” from an unnamed government agency, likely the Defense Department.³ 

Chief Usher J.B. West mentioned Hogue in his memoir when describing how smoothly the White House staff functioned in early 1964 soon after Lyndon B. Johnson became president. West wrote: “White House management was functioning more efficiently than ever before. With the three able ushers, Nelson Pierce, Ray Hare, and Rex Scouten, and my invaluable assistant, Bette Hogue. The staff performed smoothly, silently, and the mansion seemed almost to run itself, like an automatic elevator.”⁴

Hogue’s exact role at the White House is unclear. Chief Usher J.B. West calls her his assistant in his memoir, which is backed up by several White House staff lists that identify Hogue as working in the Ushers Office and reporting to the chief usher.⁵ However, some newspaper articles described her as the assistant to Social Secretary Bess Abell, who reported to the First Lady.⁶

Hogue appears to have worked at the White House until the late 1970s.⁷ She passed away in 2019 and was buried in Fairfax Memorial Park in Virginia.⁸