Presidents come and go from the White House every four years or eight years, but the Ficklin family was a constant presence there for nearly eight decades, serving 13 presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Barack Obama.
The one family by the president’s side for one-third of America’s 250-year existence includes Woodson Ficklin, his wife, some of his brothers and sisters, and son John Wrory Ficklin, who was just seven when he learned that his father, the son of a slave, was important.
