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Eugene Allen, White House butler for 8 presidents, dies at 90
Washington Post ^ | 04/02/2010 | By Wil Haygood

Posted on 04/02/2010 12:53:08 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd

Eugene Allen, who endured a harsh and segregated upbringing in his native Virginia and went on to work for eight presidents as a White House butler, died March 31 of renal failure at Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park. He was 90.

Mr. Allen and his wife, Helene, were profiled in a Washington Post story in 2008 that explored the history of blacks in the White House. The couple were excited about the possibility of Barack Obama's historic election and their opportunity to vote for him. Helene, however, died on the eve of the election, and Mr. Allen went to vote alone. The couple had been married for 65 years.

Afterward, Mr. Allen, who had been living quietly in a simple house off Georgia Avenue NW in the District, experienced a fame that he had only witnessed beforehand. He received a VIP invitation to Obama's swearing-in, where a Marine guard escorted him to his seat. Eyes watering, he watched the first black man take the oath of office of the presidency.

Mr. Allen was besieged with invitations to appear on national TV shows. There were book offers and dozens of speaking requests, all of which he declined. He also received hundreds of letters, some from as far away as Switzerland, from people amazed at the arc of his life and imploring him to hold on while thanking him for his service to the nation. People in his neighborhood would stop him and explain to their children the outlines of his life.

"He liked to think of himself as just a humble butler," his only child, Charles, said Thursday. Aside from his son, Mr. Allen is survived by five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: eugeneallen; obituary
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I've read his story previously. Very inspiring.
1 posted on 04/02/2010 12:53:08 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
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To: Responsibility2nd
Barack Obama's historic election

I still say that anybody who makes this statement is racist.

2 posted on 04/02/2010 12:54:32 PM PDT by AmishDude (It doesn't matter whom you vote for, it matters who takes office.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Racist little article, isn’t it ?

Voting for color - as one in every 2 people seemed to do two years ago, is racist as hell. His guarded walk to the inauguration and his vote are both because of skin color.

Pay no attention to the article. A butler for 8 presidents and he is STILL not smart enough to vote based on merits.


3 posted on 04/02/2010 12:56:45 PM PDT by Celerity
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To: Responsibility2nd
Barack Obama's historic election

gallery_2_3_83815.gif picture by aa7ya

4 posted on 04/02/2010 12:57:49 PM PDT by BigSkyFreeper ("Ked Tennedy would have been plowed... I mean, proud today..." - Senator Max Baucus (Drunk-MT))
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To: AmishDude

Agreed. And why is it that whenever the media does one of those “human interest” pieces on an elderly black person, the first thing they always ask him about is how excited he must feel about the “historic” election of Barack Obama?


5 posted on 04/02/2010 12:58:15 PM PDT by conimbricenses
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To: Responsibility2nd

Tears in his eyes at being used as a political symbol? Didn’t he notice that all of those Jim Crow politicians who governed during his years under segregation were Democrats? ALL of them?


6 posted on 04/02/2010 12:58:25 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Sounds like a classy and respectful man for not selling his stories about the presidents even though he could have likely used the cash.


7 posted on 04/02/2010 12:59:42 PM PDT by trumandogz (The Democrats are driving us to Socialism at 100 MPH -The GOP is driving us to Socialism at 97.5 MPH)
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To: Responsibility2nd
Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan...

Who am I missing?

8 posted on 04/02/2010 1:00:40 PM PDT by EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)
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To: Cicero

“Democrats? ALL of them?”

Nom not all of them as there were Southern Republicans who opposed the Civil Rights Acts.


9 posted on 04/02/2010 1:01:13 PM PDT by trumandogz (The Democrats are driving us to Socialism at 100 MPH -The GOP is driving us to Socialism at 97.5 MPH)
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To: trumandogz

Not sure why you think he could use the cash. I’m sure he had a nice salary, benefits, bonuses, etc.


10 posted on 04/02/2010 1:03:25 PM PDT by presently no screen name ( Repeal ZEROcare!)
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To: trumandogz

I suppose “all” is a bit sweeping. But there weren’t a whole lot of Republican politicians in office down South until the Dems switched over to the other side.


11 posted on 04/02/2010 1:07:26 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: presently no screen name

Everyone needs cash.


12 posted on 04/02/2010 1:07:53 PM PDT by trumandogz (The Democrats are driving us to Socialism at 100 MPH -The GOP is driving us to Socialism at 97.5 MPH)
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To: Cicero

There were a few Republicans in the South and they did not support civil rights.


13 posted on 04/02/2010 1:09:18 PM PDT by trumandogz (The Democrats are driving us to Socialism at 100 MPH -The GOP is driving us to Socialism at 97.5 MPH)
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To: trumandogz

Thats not to say he did not keep journals. Hopefully he did.


14 posted on 04/02/2010 1:10:30 PM PDT by annieokie
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To: Responsibility2nd

God bless his soul.


15 posted on 04/02/2010 1:15:04 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.)
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To: trumandogz

OK. Name one Southern Republican Senator that opposed the Civil Rights legislation. I will make this easy for you. There weren’t any. Period. There not even any Southern Republican political office holders at the time. From Virginia to Texas, it was all Dems all the time.


16 posted on 04/02/2010 1:15:04 PM PDT by Pamlico (Oppose 0bama at every opportunity)
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To: Pamlico

John Tower-Texas.


17 posted on 04/02/2010 1:33:37 PM PDT by trumandogz (The Democrats are driving us to Socialism at 100 MPH -The GOP is driving us to Socialism at 97.5 MPH)
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To: Responsibility2nd

RIP.


18 posted on 04/02/2010 1:35:23 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Amber Lamps !"~~)
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To: trumandogz
I want to see names.

I grew up in the segregated South, and a couple of parents in our elementary school were pointed out because they VOTED Republican. Straight ticket.

I cannot remember a single Republican congressman in the Deep South from the late 1950s through the Civil Rights Act. Admittedly I don't know every politician in the South, but I'm pretty sure there were none in Georgia or Alabama. About the only thing I can think of is maybe a lone Pubbie in Atlanta or Charleston . . . maybe . . . but I doubt it and I'm sure I would have heard about it, because my parents marched at Selma.

19 posted on 04/02/2010 1:41:01 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of ye Chasse, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: trumandogz
Tower ran in 1961 and was the first Republican senator elected in Texas since Reconstruction.

But he was the ONLY Republican anywhere in the South in his first term. So your statement 'there were a few Republicans in the South' is inaccurate. There was one. And he wasn't from the Deep South.

20 posted on 04/02/2010 1:45:57 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of ye Chasse, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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