Elizabeth Jaffray (December 26, 1860, inCanada West – May 2, 1934, in Ontario, Canada) was an American employed as aservant at theWhite House in the early 20th century.
Jaffray was retained as White House head housekeeper in 1909, a position then equivalent to that of amajordomo. Recruited from an "exclusive New York employment bureau", she became the first female chief servant in White House history.[1][2] One of Jaffray's earliest, and most controversial, moves was to order the segregation of dining among White House staff.[1] Prior to Jaffray, Caucasian andAfrican-American butlers and valets would dine together, while lower-ranked servants such as maids and footmen would dine separately, though also at a racially integrated table. Jaffrey ordered that the two dining tables be arranged by race, instead of rank.[3] When servants rebelled against the move she threatened mass firings, gaining their ultimate obedience. During her time at the White House she came to be regarded by employees as "a real terror".[4]
According to MajorArchibald Butt, theaide de camp to PresidentWilliam Howard Taft, Jaffray claimed to have "seen and felt" theghost of a child she believed wasWilliam Wallace Lincoln on several occasions in 1912, around the fiftieth anniversary of his death. The same year she would fret over the corpulent Taft's eating habits, prompting him to promise to go on a diet.[5]
Jaffray used horses as a means of transport longer than anyone else at the White House, continuing to be chauffeured in abrougham for her daily shopping excursions into the mid 1920s.[6]
Jaffray remained at the White House for 17 years and left in 1926 during the presidency ofCalvin Coolidge. Jaffray had reportedly become disgusted by Coolidge's austere spending on White House entertaining; Coolidge, in turn, referred to Jaffray by the nickname "queenie".Grace Coolidge expressed relief at Jaffray's departure, musing that "she has come to consider herself the permanent resident and the President and his family transients". Following her departure Jaffray wroteSecrets of the White House. Published byCosmopolitan, the book was a tell-all about her time at the executive mansion. She was portrayed byCloris Leachman in the 1979NBC mini-seriesBackstairs at the White House.[7][8]
She died May 2, 1934, and is buried in an unmarked grave in Ontario, Canada.[9][10][4]