Wilson Jerman, a poor North Carolina farmworker’s son, who became an indispensable and much-loved figure in the White House under eleven respective presidents, has died aged 91. He started during Dwight Eisenhower’s administration as a cleaner, was spotted later by Jackie Kennedy and promoted to butler. He had a close relationship with her according to his granddaughter: “She trusted him with her children, and he would ensure they had everything they needed in the White House.” When his wife was dying in 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson flew his personal doctors to help treat her and sent lobsters and filet mignon from the White House kitchen.
He was born January 21, 1929, in Seaboard, North Carolina and left school at 12 to work on a farm. He moved to Washington in the mid-fifties and catered parties in Georgetown before being hired at the White House.
He had a Sun Aquarius in an exact and lucky, laid-back square to Jupiter in Taurus; and even more significantly he had a Yod of Sun sextile Uranus in Aries inconjunct Neptune in Virgo. Yods are otherwise known as ‘the finger of destiny’ and usually mark out a unique path in life. Often there is a phase of wandering before they click into place as major planetary influences exert pressure on them.
When he first moved into the White House tr Pluto was conjunct his Yod focal point Neptune which would certainly pump a transformational energy through the Yod. And his Solar Arc Uranus, on one leg of the Yod, had moved to conjunct his Jupiter, bringing a lucky break. That period brought together the two major configurations in his chart together by Solar Arc – his Sun square Jupiter and his Yod.
His birth chart also had the harsh conditions of his childhood which gave him guts and self-discipline, reflected in a Mars opposition Saturn square Venus in Pisces. With a focal point Venus and a focal point Neptune he would come across as charming, sympathetic and good at PR. When JFK was assassinated in 1963 Wilson Jerman’s Solar Arc Saturn had moved to conjunct his Sun for a depressive setback.
A fascinating life’s arc.
First, I thought Jerman was the man that inspired the 2013 film “The Butler”. But, I see that was Eugene Allen (July 14, 1919 – March 31, 2010), who also began working in the White House when Eisenhower was president. Though, he left “already” in the Reagan years.
“The Butler” follows the change in society and race relations through the years from Eisenhower to Obama as experienced by a butler working long time in the White House. But the movie character Cecil Gaines, as Eugene Allen, is not staying in the job all the way into the Obama term.
That man was Wilson Jerman.
I was so touched to read about this noble and humble man. I had never heard of him. Thank you.
Incredible that he got to see a black First Family in WH. Not just Barack, but Michelle, whose grandparents would have had very similar stories to that of Jerman’s.