Emmett E. Rogers

Emmett Elmer Rogers was born in Washington, D.C. on March 10, 1889.¹ His mother, Maggie Rogers, worked as a maid at the White House from 1909 to 1939. His sister Lillian Rogers Parks ended up working at the White House for several decades as a maid, and stated in her memoir that Emmett was hired as a “yard boy” at the White House when he was eleven years old during the presidency of William Howard Taft. His mother, Maggie, had to get special permission for him to work due to his young age. As a “yard boy,” Emmett Rogers worked under the gardeners to maintain the extensive White House grounds and perform other related tasks, such as picking up trash after a party hosted on the White House lawn.² Rogers later told people that he assisted with planting and pruning rose bushes in the White House Rose Garden and that he often spoke with the president.³ 

According to his sister Lillian, while Rogers worked at the White House he one day “played hooky from work, and ran off to the Washington Monument grounds to play baseball. It was his day of dire disgrace when Mr. Brown, his foreman, found him on the Monument grounds in back of the White House, and brought him back, all sand and grime, to Mama. ‘I won’t report it,’ Mr. Brown assured Mama. ‘We’ll just give him another chance.’ Emmett hung his head and said nothing. He knew he’d have some explaining to do to Mama later.”⁴ It is currently unclear how long Rogers worked at the White House, though he appears to have only done so temporarily as a child.

In 1916, Rogers joined the U.S. Army and participated in the 1916-1917 American military operation against Francisco “Pancho” Villa in Mexico. During World War I, Rogers fought in Europe, ultimately achieving the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.⁵ He was injured during a poison gas attack and suffered lung damage, but after the war First Lady Grace Coolidge arranged to have the White House doctor, James Coupal, attend to him. Emmett recuperated in a hospital in Arizona, then returned to Washington, D.C. and worked as a government messenger. However, he moved back west to Coronado, California, in hopes that the warm climate would be better for his lungs.⁶

In California, Rogers worked as a chauffeur and as a police officer at a naval supply depot.⁷ When President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Coronado in 1942, Rogers’s wife Fidelia, who worked for a catering company, cooked a lunch hosted for the president by his son, John Roosevelt.⁸

Emmett Rogers passed away on September 10, 1980, and was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in San Diego, California.⁹