This last devotion was too long to fit in the printed Devotional and we meant to include it in the emailed and online version. We send it now with our heartfelt thanksgiving for all of the wonderful, thoughtful writers who shared their faith so eloquently in this year's Lenten Devotional.
Romans 5:2 He has brought us, by faith, into this experience of God’s grace, in which we now live.
The Butler sees a new White House
For more than three decades Eugene Allen, a black man, worked in the White House kitchen. During some of those years harsh segregation laws lay upon the land. Every night he trekked home to his wife, Helene, who kept him out of her kitchen.
President Truman called him “Gene.” President Ford liked to talk golf with him. Eugene saw eight presidential administrations come and go; often working six days a week. “I never missed a day of work,” Eugene Allen said recently.
He was there while racial history was made: Brown vs. Board of Education; Little Rock school crisis; 1963 March on Washington; Cities burning; Civil Rights bills; Assassinations….
In 1952 when he started at the White House he still couldn’t use public restrooms in some states.
Eugene met Helene (who turned 86 in 2008), at a birthday party in 1942. Her voice was musical in a Lena Horne kind of way, and she called him “Honey.” He was too shy to ask for her number, so she tracked him down. They married a year later.
At the White House, Gene was hired as a “pantry man.” He washed dishes, stocked cabinets and shined silverware. He started at $2400 a year. In time he was promoted to “butler.” With this promotion came tremendous privileges: “I shook the hand of all the presidents I ever worked for,” he said. Eugene and Helene had one son, Charles, who now works as an investigator with the State Department.
“President Ford’s birthday and my birthday were on the same day,” he said. “He’d have a birthday party at the White House, and Mrs. Ford would say, ‘It’s Gene’s birthday too!’” so they’d sing a little ditty to the butler. And the butler, who wore a tuxedo to work every day, would blush.
Gene Allen was promoted to maitre d’ in 1980. He left the White House in 1986 after 34 years. President Reagan wrote him a nice note, and Nancy Reagan hugged him tight.
In November 2008 they were interviewed at their home. Gene and Helene speculated about what it would mean if a black man were elected president. “Just imagine,” she said. “It would really be something,” Gene said. “We’re pretty much past the going out stage,” Helene told Gene, “but you never know. If Obama gets in there, it’d sure be nice to go over there again. They prayed together to help Barack Obama get to the White House. They planned that they’d go vote together. She’d lean on her cane with one hand, and lean on him with the other while walking to the precinct. And she’d get supper going afterward. They went over their election day plans more than once.
On Monday, November 3, Helene had a doctor’s appointment. Gene woke and nudged her once, then again. He shuffled around to her side of the bed. He nudged Helene again. Later he said, “I woke up, but my wife didn’t.” He was all alone.
The next day with a heavy heart he went alone to the precinct, and cast his vote for Obama. Later that evening he missed telling his cherished Helene about the black man now bound for the Oval Office…about how their prayers had been answered!
[excerpted from an interview in the LA Times]
Prayer: May we continue on a road of Freedom and Peace, dear Lord, we pray! Amen
Janet Munson
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