A List of the nineteen Presidents' children who worked
in the White House with their fathers
While most adult children of presidents assumed roles as political surrogates and advisers to their fathers, some served formally on the White House staff or were personal secretaries or assistants. Some assumed large roles, such as Anna Roosevelt, who was a defacto chief of staff in her father's last year. After President Kennedy appointed his own brother as Attorney General, laws were passed limiting the role of children and relatives of presidents. But modern presidents were still able to place their children on the respective political party payroll and give them a White House office and put them to work. Here are the nineteen sons and daughters of presidents who worked in an official capacity in their father's White House.
George Washington Adams
He was born April 12, 1801. Most historians consider his mysterious death on April 30, 1829, as a suicide. He was 28 years old. Despite early signs of brilliance and being both a son and grandson to presidents, George would never aspire to the lofty plans his father had laid out for him. He graduated from Harvard, practiced law and was elected to the Massachusetts' state legislature, but was unable to sustain any level of success. Secret scandals and mounting debts drove him to alcohol. He either fell or jumped from a passenger liner in New York Harbor.
John Adams, II
He was born on the 4th of July in 1803. He died an alcoholic on October 23, 1834. He was only 31. John was an enthusiastic youngster. He was educated at the best schools and he excelled in sports. But his perfectionist father greatly disapproved of his lackluster performance at Harvard and his embarrassing expulsion.
John won the hand of his cousin, Mary Catherine Hellon in spite of his brothers efforts. They were married in the second wedding ceremony to take place in the White House. He worked as a secretary in his father's White House. Unfortunately a public humiliation by an enemy of the family derailed any political aspirations. He tried his hand at managing the family's business, but soon it began to lose money. He likewise turned to alcohol for escape and died young.
John won the hand of his cousin, Mary Catherine Hellon in spite of his brothers efforts. They were married in the second wedding ceremony to take place in the White House. He worked as a secretary in his father's White House. Unfortunately a public humiliation by an enemy of the family derailed any political aspirations. He tried his hand at managing the family's business, but soon it began to lose money. He likewise turned to alcohol for escape and died young.
Abraham Van Buren
He was born on November 27, 1807. He died March 15, 1873. He was a West Point graduate who served two years on the frontier as well as in the Mexican War. He resigned his commission on the frontier to become his father's secretary in the White House. He married Angelica Singleton, heir to a wealthy South Carolina family. He spent much of his life in the shadow of his famous father. He spent many years of his life editing and publishing the Van Buren presidential papers and serving as an apologist for his father's legacy.
John Van Buren
He was born February 18, 1810. He died at sea of kidney failure on October 13, 1866. He was 56. John Van Buren is one of the most colorful of the presidential children. Graduating from Yale in his teens and admitted to the New York bar in his twenties, gave him a head start in life. But he quickly squandered any advantage he was given. His pursuits in life were drinking, gambling and promiscuity. After carousing his way through Europe on his father's expense account, he was able to return stateside and build a career in law and as a U. S. Congressman. Marriage to Elizabeth VanderPoel brought only temporary respite to his notorious partying. To his credit he had moments of courage, standing boldly against slavery, but his personal life descended into further scandal. Finally, his alcoholism left him an invalid and eventually took his life.
Martin Van Buren, Jr.
He was born December 20, 1812. He died at age 42 on March 19, 1855. The third son of the eighth president never married. He spent most of his adult life serving his father as a White House secretary and then as a personal assistant. He arranged the former president's papers for posterity. When he fell ill, his father sent him to Europe to find a cure. But sadly "Mat" died in Paris his grieving father at his side.
Smith Van Buren
He was born January 16, 1817. He died 1876 at 59 years of age. The last Van Buren son spent his adult life defending the reputation and historic profile of his father. Little is known about his personal life, except that he married twice and fathered at least seven children. He survived his father by fourteen years and eventually transcended his brothers as the chief apologist of the Van Buren presidency.
Robert Tyler, Jr.
He was born September 9, 1816 and died December 3, 1877. Introverted and shy as a child, Robert overcame his handicap to become a powerful lawyer and politician. In his twenties he married Priscilla Cooper and worked as a private secretary in his father's White House. The couple lived in the mansion, with Priscilla serving as White House hostess for an invalid First Lady. Later, Robert rose to prominence in Pennsylvania politics, becoming an early supporter of President James Buchanan. He served as registrar for the Confederate treasury during the Civil War. Tyler refused opportunities to trade on his fame as a presidential son, maintaining a dignity and integrity that won deep friendships and wide respect. In later years he became the Alabama Democratic state chairman and editor of the Montgomery Advisor. He had nine children.
Richard Taylor
He was born January 27, 1826 and died on April 12, 1879. After education in Europe, he served as an aide de camp to his father during the Mexican campaign. Later when the general became president , he served as his father's private secretary. During the Civil War he rose to fame as a Confederate general, fighting with Stonewall Jackson in the Valley Campaign. He refused to accept favors or promotion because of his name, earning even begrudging praise from Northern observers. He was a plantation manager, soldier, politician and author. Taylor was considered a success who earned his own reputation on its own merits. He died from severe internal congestion, resulting from a long battle with rheumatoid arthritis.
Millard Powers Fillmore
He was born April 25, 1828 and he died November 15, 1889. "Powers" served his father, as a personal secretary during the latter's time as president. A student at Harvard, he later practiced law and was appointed as a federal court clerk. Much of the rest of his life is a mystery. He had no children and was never married. Before his death he arranged for the destruction of all his private papers.
Robert Johnson
He was born February 22, 1834. He died on April 22, 1869, most likely a suicide. Robert became a colonel in the Union army, beloved by his men. Sadly after the war his drinking problem escalate. He served briefly as a secretary to his father in the White House where he caused a scandal when prostitutes were allegedly seen leaving his office. He never married.
Ulysses Grant, Jr.
He was born July 22, 1852 and he died September 25, 1929. Buck studied at Harvard, the University of Gottingen in Germany and Columbia Law School. He was a lawyer and tried his hand as a politician and businessman. He was briefly a White House secretary to his father, and much later made a bid for the U.S. Senate. It was a controversial campaign in which charges of bribery were unfairly leveled against him. Before his death, Buck Grant established himself anew in San Diego society and built the beautiful U. S. Grant Hotel.
James Webb Cook Hayes
He was born March 20, 1856 and he died July 26, 1934. Known all his life as "Webb, he served as a secretary in his father's White House. He latter launched a successful business career that spanned decades and made him rich. He reorganized one small enterprise, which would grow into the Union Carbide Corporation. He married Mary Otis Miller they had no children. Webb pursued his lifelong love of the military, risking his life as a soldier of fortune around the globe until he died at 78.
Russell Benjamin Harrison
He was born August 12, 1854, and died on December 13, 1936. He joined his father's White House staff, while his wife, Angeline Saunders, became official White House hostess for an ailing first lady. He was enbroiled in a railroad stock scandal. He had an army career, ran a streetcar company in Indiana, and served in the state legislature.
Anna Roosevelt
Born May 3, 1906, died of cancer December 1, 1975.) Caught in a triad of three strong willed persons--her father FDR; her mother; and her grandmother, the domineering Sara Roosevelt--Anna had to grow up quickly. She would marry three times, have two children and squeeze in a sometimes gutsy but ultimately doomed career as a journalist. Anna, who accompanied her father on the trip to Yalta, was a witness to many historic moments, but she also carried the burden of dealing with some of the most intimate and painful decisions of her parents during their dysfunctional marriage.
James "Jimmy" Roosevelt
Born December 23, 1907, died August 13, 1991.) A Harvard graduate, Jimmy Roosevelt was a war hero, author, White House secretary for his father, and a six-term U. S. Congressman. Lifelong business scandals hampered his political ambitions. He ran for mayor of Los Angeles and lost, then ran for governor of California and lost. Married four times, James was the father of three children.
John Eisenhower
Born August 3, 1922- ) A decorated hero, John Eisenhower found his World War II military career thwarted at every turn by fears for his safety and concern from the top brass that his capture would be an unwanted distraction to Ike, the Allied Commander. He served as a White House aide to his father and as U. S. ambassador to Belgium in the Nixon administration. John's greatest achievements came as a military historian, his numerous books popular with readers and reviewers alike. His most famous history, The Bitter Woods, is considered to be the definitive study on the Battle of the Bulge. Yanks: The Epic Story of the American Army in World War I was published in 2001 when John Eisenhower was nearly 79 years of age. John Eisenhower, the oldest living presidential child lives in Kimberton, Pennsylvania. He married Barbara Jean Thompson on June 10, 1947, but they divorced in 1986. The Eisenhower's had four exceptional children including Dwight David, II who married Julie Nixon, herself a presidential daughter.
Jack Ford
He was born March 16, 1952- . As a young man in the White House, Jack Ford was pursued by the media wherever he went. In latter years he co-founded a successful business, California Infotech, which supplies electronic-information kiosks to malls. And in 1996 he was asked to serve as executive director of the host committee for the San Diego Republican Convention. Jack Ford married Juliann Felando in 1989. They have two sons and live in California.
Susan Ford
She was born July 6, 1957 -. Susan Ford, the only presidential daughter to have her senior prom in the White House, wrote a monthly column for Seventeen magazine during her father's term in office. She studied photography with the great Ansel Adams. Her photo credits include work with Associated Press, Newsweek, Ladies' Home Journal and numerous film projects. She recently wrote and published a mystery novel entitled Double Exposure: A First Daughter Mystery, giving an inside look at life in the White House from a "first daughter detective" viewpoint. When her mother was suffering with alcoholism, Susan helped put the first lady on the road to recovery. It was a healing that would lead to the establishment of The Betty Ford. Susan serves with her mother as board member of the Center. She is a past National Spokesperson for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and now lives with her two daughters and husband Vaden Bales in the Southwest.
James "Chip" Carter
He was born April 12, 1950 -. Chip worked in his father's peanut business, the Democratic National Committee and eventually co-founded a corporate consulting firm. In 2000 he became president of the Atlanta-based Friendship Force, a nonprofit international cultural exchange organization. He married Caron Griffin and had one son, James Earl Carter, IV but was divorced. He married Ginger Hodges and had one daughter, Margaret Alicia Carter, before their divorce. He is currently married to Becky Payne. Chip Carter is viewed as one of the more successful children of presidents.
