Bonner C. Arrington

Bonner Carter Arrington was born in Covington, Virginia on November 20, 1922.¹ In 1943, he married Alphadine “Deanie” Simmons.² In 1950, Arrington got a job at the Truman White House through his uncle, Melvon Carter, who worked in the carpenter shop.³ 

It was a family affair– his wife, Deanie, later worked in the gift unit, her brother, Lee Simmons, was an engineer, and his brother, Howard, was a plumber.⁴ 

Bonner Arrington worked as a carpenter, but “often did a little of everything– from fixing stuck windows to setting up rooms for important dinners with visiting foreign leaders and making hand-carved gifts for them.”⁵ After President Kennedy’s assassination, he assisted in hanging black mourning crape on the State Floor and was part of building the bier for Kennedy’s casket, remembering his death as the “saddest thing” he experienced while working at the White House.⁶ 

After thirty-three years at the White House, Arrington retired in 1983 and moved to South Carolina.⁷ He died in Myrtle Beach on January 31, 2014.⁸