William F. Shields

From at least 1928 to 1932, a man named William F. Shields was assigned to the White House from the Office of Public Buildings and Parks. In 1928, a Washington Herald newspaper article detailed funeral arrangements for White House maid Katherine Wynne. When Katherine died, Shields served as a pallbearer alongside other White House employees including Thomas Scanlon, B.E. McKenner, Joseph A. Sheehan, and Edward A. Norris.¹

Shields also appears on White House staff lists from the Hoover era as a yardman, or laborer on the White House Grounds. Because he was assigned to the Executive Mansion from a different department, it is difficult to discern the exact tenure of his work there at this time.²