Infamous housekeeper of the White House during the Franklin Roosevelt administration. Proprietor of a Hyde Park bakery, Mrs. Nesbitt was asked by Eleanor Roosevelt to become head housekeeper when the Roosevelts moved into the White House in 1933. Her husband, Henry F. Nesbitt, accompanied his wife and became a White House steward. Under Mrs. Nesbitt's direction, the cuisine in the White House soon became known for its non-glamorous and rather bland characteristics. "Eat before you come to the White House" became a popular phrase. Besides being a rather ordinary cook, Mrs. Nesbitt was known for her iron-clad constitution, and was a formidable woman to have to deal with. She remained briefly into the Truman administration, but was dismissed by the new President when she refused to give Bess Truman a stick of butter for her woman's club, as butter was rationed. She retired to Hyde Park and wrote a cook book as well as memoir of her years in the White House.
Infamous housekeeper of the White House during the Franklin Roosevelt administration. Proprietor of a Hyde Park bakery, Mrs. Nesbitt was asked by Eleanor Roosevelt to become head housekeeper when the Roosevelts moved into the White House in 1933. Her husband, Henry F. Nesbitt, accompanied his wife and became a White House steward. Under Mrs. Nesbitt's direction, the cuisine in the White House soon became known for its non-glamorous and rather bland characteristics. "Eat before you come to the White House" became a popular phrase. Besides being a rather ordinary cook, Mrs. Nesbitt was known for her iron-clad constitution, and was a formidable woman to have to deal with. She remained briefly into the Truman administration, but was dismissed by the new President when she refused to give Bess Truman a stick of butter for her woman's club, as butter was rationed. She retired to Hyde Park and wrote a cook book as well as memoir of her years in the White House.
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