A long-serving White House usher has shared a ghastly ghost story involving Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. Gary Walters, who served a string of presidents from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush as first a member of the Secret Service detail and then a White House usher, is releasing a book called White House Memories next month. In an interview with Politico, Walters discussed the iconic Lincoln Bedroom, a second-floor room given that name in 1945 after President Harry S. Truman directed that Lincoln-era furnishings be assembled there. When asked if the Lincoln Bedroom was haunted, Walters insisted many staff “swore up and down” that it was. “I had one young man who had been there for many years, and he was asked one evening by the curator’s office to retrieve a piece of furniture,” Walters said. “When he went into the room, he thought he heard something, and as he walked in the door, he said the rocking chair in the corner was moving. He swears that President Abraham Lincoln was there.” Lincoln was assassinated in 1865. The room had another unexpected presence earlier this year when Elon Musk revealed Donald Trump had let him sleep in the prestigious bedroom “more than once.” The historic room has also fallen victim to Trump’s goldfinger renovations this year, with the president overhauling the adjoining bathroom to his liking. Walters was appointed chief usher, in charge of household staff and operations, by Ronald Reagan in 1986 and served in that role for 21 years before retiring in 2007.
