By Mrs. Sandra Bonner-Hadley, 2nd Episcopal District
Please join Ward Memorial in congratulating one of our own, Brother John Ficklin, on the release of his new book, An Unusual Path: Three Generations From Slavery to the White House.
We celebrate Brother Ficklin not only for this tremendous accomplishment, but because he is part of our Ward family. His family’s story is, in many ways, a reflection of the legacy and history of Ward Memorial itself. Below, you will find more information about Brother Ficklin’s book.
The Ficklin family name has been associated with White House service for nearly a century. In fact, so many family members once worked there that the Washington Post even quoted a butler who observed, “A Ficklin here, a Ficklin there, I see Ficklins everywhere.” Author John Wrory Ficklin, who retired in 2015 after forty years of White House service, presents his family history in this heartwarming and inspiring new book.
The story begins with the author’s grandfather, James Strother Ficklin, who was born enslaved in about 1854 and conscripted to serve as a water boy to Confederate army troops quartering in rural Virginia. Following Emancipation, he worked as a houseman and laborer, and as a coal miner, before purchasing 37 acres of land in Virginia, where he farmed, produced molasses, and raised ten children.
John Woodson Ficklin, the seventh of those ten children and the author’s father, moved to Washington, D.C., as a teenager and, like many African American men at the time, found work as a butler there. His older brother Charles began working as a butler at the White House during the Franklin D. Roosevelt presidency, and he soon joined him. Over the course of forty-three years in service at the White House, John Woodson Ficklin was promoted to the esteemed positions of head butler and maître d’hotel.
The author recalls the prominence of his father’s job as he watched his dad serve as an usher at the funeral for President John F. Kennedy. Growing up, he worked part-time for his father, as staff at White House State Dinners and social events. During one summer picnic on the South Lawn, while transporting ice to the service tents, he was delighted to hear President Jimmy Carter sing “Salt Peanuts” with Dizzy Gillespie. The author continued his service with an extended summer job as a messenger, where, among other tasks, he transported documents from the Nixon White House to the Watergate Special Prosecutor’s office. Eventually, he became the longest-serving member of the National Security staff, faithfully serving seven U.S. presidents.
From the author’s unique perspective, An Unusual Path tells the story of three Ficklin men against a backdrop of American history.
About the Author
The Honorable John W. Ficklin’s career spanned eight administrations, culminating in President Barack Obama appointing him to the position of special assistant to the president for National Security Affairs.https://shop.whitehousehistory.org/collections/bookstore-books-and-journals/products/an-unusual-path-three-generations-from-slavery-to-the-white-house
