Mamie Eisenhower

                    Mamie Geneva Doud was born on November 14, 1896, at 709 (formerly 718) Carroll Street, Boone, Iowa, the second of four girls.  Her parents were John Sheldon Doud (November 18, 1870, Rome, New York - June 23, 1951) and the former Elvira Mathilde "Minnie" Carlson (May 13, 1878, Boone, Iowa - September 28, 1960, Denver, Colorado).  John and Minnie were married August 10, 1894, in Boone, Iowa.  Mamie's three sisters were Eleanor Carlson Doud (June 27, 1895 - January 8, 1912), Eda Mae Doud (December 23, 1900 - November 9, 1918), and Mabel Frances "Mike" Doud Gill Moore (October 6, 1902 - October 15, 1988).  Mamie's father was an executive at a meatpacking company founded by his father (Doud and Montgomery - "Buyers of Live Hogs") and owned investments in Illinois and Iowa stockyards; he retired at age 36.  Mamie's religious affiliation was Presbyterian.

                    The American paternal ancestors of Mamie Doud extended back ten and eleven generations to England.  After immigrating to the United States, they settled in Connecticut and lived there for over one hundred years before migrating west to New York State where Mamie's father was born.  Mamie's maternal ancestors were Swedish.  Her grandfather, Carl Severin Jeremiasson, was born in 1841 in Halland County, Sweden, and her grandmother, Johanna Maria Andersdotter, was born in 1841 in Fjarar, Sweden; they immigrated to the United States and settled in Boone, Iowa.

 

                    Mamie was named - at least in part, after a popular song of the day entitled Lovely Lake Geneva.  Her physical appearance was described as auburn hair, blue eyes, and five feet one inches tall.  Mamie was only nine months old when her family moved from Boone, Iowa, to Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Due to the ill health of her older sister Eleanor, the family moved in 1902 to Pueblo, Colorado, and then to Colorado Springs.  They settled permanently in Denver, Colorado, in 1905, but Mamie's mother did not like the severe winters of Colorado.  The family purchased a second home in San Antonio, Texas, where they began spending the winters in 1910. The Doud family was extremely close to each other and socially active in their communities; they often made their home a center of activity for other children and families.

                    Because the family was moving between homes, Mamie split her high school years between one school in Denver and the other in San Antonio.   Mamie also attended a finishing school (Miss Wolcott School for Girls, 1914-1915, Denver, Colorado) and a dance school (Miss Hayden's Dance School, Denver).  Even though Mamie had little interest in academics, her father taught her the value of money, and she very early developed skill with budgeting and finance.  Mamie was blessed to have this education.  Although she was reared in a well-to-do home with all the comforts, including household help, jewelry, and fine clothing, she was an expert at saving money and was very conscientious about costs.  She was musically talented and played the piano and the electric organ; she also enjoyed dancing, bridge, and canasta.

                    Not long after Mamie completed her studies at the finishing school, she met Dwight Eisenhower in October 1915 in San Antonio.  After being introduced, Eisenhower as officer of the day invited Mamie to accompany on his rounds at Fort Sam Houston.  They became formally engaged on St Valentine's Day, February 14, 1916, when Eisenhower gave her a miniature of his West Point class ring.

                    Lieutenant Dwight D. Eisenhower was age 25 and Mamie Doud was age 19 when they married on July 1, 1916, at the home of her parents in Denver, Colorado.  After their marriage, performed by Reverend Williamson (Central Presbyterian Church, Denver), the newlyweds honeymooned for a few days at Eldorado Springs, Colorado, a resort near Denver.  They then visited Eisenhower's parents in Abilene before setting up housekeeping at Fort Sam Houston.  The crude living quarters of a lieutenant must have been much different than the homes she enjoyed before marriage.

                    Two children were born to Ike and Mamie Eisenhower, but only one lived to adulthood.  Doud Dwight "Icky" Eisenhower was born September 24, 1917, and died of scarlet fever on January 2, 1921.  John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower was born August 3, 1922, in Denver, Colorado.  He graduated from West Pont in 1944 and earned a master's degree in English literature from Columbia University in 1950.  After he retired from a military career (1944-1963), he was appointed as ambassador to Belgium (1969-1971) by Richard Nixon.  Besides being a decorated military hero and a diplomat, he was also an author and wrote three books:  The Bitter Woods (an account of the Battle of the Bulge, 1969), Strictly Personal (1974), and Allies:  Pearl Harbor to D-Day (1982).  He also served as a White House aide to his father.  His son, David, married Julie Nixon, the daughter of Richard M. Nixon, the 37th President.

                    Mamie Eisenhower followed a similar pattern to that of other Army wives, meaning she made a home in a succession of Army posts in the United States, in the Panama Canal Zone, in France, in the Philippines.  Even though Mamie was accustomed to more luxurious homes, she adjusted well to the Army life.  While Eisenhower was gaining promotions and fame during World War II, Mamie was living in Washington, D.C.  After he retired from the military and became the president of Columbia University in 1948, the Eisenhowers purchased their first home, a farm located at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (now the Eisenhower National Historic Site). The work on their dream home was delayed while Eisenhower served as the commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces and Mamie as his hostess at a villa near Paris.  The work on their retirement home was finally completed in 1955.   The Eisenhowers moved 28 times before their final retirement when they left the White House in 1961.

                    The 1952 presidential campaign was the first to "market" the candidate's spouse to women voters.  There was a Republican effort that year to enlist housewives as supporters and also to be volunteer workers; they did this by "translating political issues" into the everyday language of most women, such as grocery bills and sending loved ones off to war.  Along with the "I like Ike" slogan, there were buttons stating "Mamie for First Lady," "We Want Mamie," and "I like Mamie Too."

                    Mamie, age 56, with her energy and enthusiasm played an important role in Eisenhower's campaign for President.  While on his "77-stop train tour of the nation," Eisenhower would "often finish his speech by asking a crowd, `How'd you like to meet my Mamie?'"  This was her cue to come out and wave to the crowd.  She played the part of a loving and dutiful wife by listening while he rehearsed his speeches and sometimes gave suggestions to him about how to make his speeches simpler in order to speak to the common citizen.  She maintained some control on who was allowed to come onto the campaign train to meet the candidate.  Whenever the campaign manager assigned hotel rooms to her apart from her husband's suite, she overruled him.  In both the 1952 and the 1956 presidential campaigns, Mamie made brief appearances on television commercials and live broadcasts with Ike.

                    Eisenhower was the first President to kiss his wife openly in public following his inaugural ceremony.  Mamie's inaugural gown is "one of the most popular in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History's collection of inaugural gowns."

                    In the view of Mrs. Eisenhower, she was simply the wife of the President of the United States and the hostess of the White House.  "Indeed, few First Ladies seemed to better reflect the general role, priorities and values of most middle-aged middle class American women during her White House tenure than did Mamie Eisenhower in the 1950's:  family, home, entertaining, and personal appearance."   

                

                    As First Lady, Mamie was known "for her outgoing manner, her love of pretty clothes …, jewelry, and her obvious pride in husband and home."  Mamie was a victim of Meniere's disease, an inner-ear disorder that affects equilibrium.  Because of this disease, Mamie was "uneasy on her feet" and became the subject of rumors that she had a drinking problem. 

                    Mamie was "a gracious hostess" as the Eisenhowers entertained "an unprecedented numbers of heads of state and leaders of foreign governments."   "With her experience as a high-ranking military spouse, Mamie Eisenhower knew well how to manage a large staff, demanding nothing short of excellence from them yet expressing personal, familial warmth for them.  She was famous for not only ordering that the mansion's carpets and rugs be kept meticulously clean and clear of even shoe marks but for also ordering up fancily-decorated cakes for practically every occasion, including the birthdays of the domestic staff member[s]."

                    Mrs. Eisenhower's favorite color was pink, and she used pink frequently in her public wardrobe and in the décor of the First Family's living quarters in the White House.  Because of Mamie's love for pink, it became a popular color for textiles in the early 1950's to the point that "one paint company even offer[ed] `First Lady Pink' among its pallet."  Mamie was so well-loved by American women that they even copied her famous bangs.  Mamie always coordinated her accessories and was included on the nation's "best-dressed list" for clothing and hats.

                    Mamie's favorite flower was gladiolas, and she saw that they were included in many flower arrangements in the White House.  Mamie celebrated holidays, such as Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and Halloween, by decorating the state rooms with paper decorations and piping in seasonal music.  Mamie was an avid fan of the television comedy series "I Love Lucy" and the "Milton Berle Show."

                    Mrs. Eisenhower was famous for being a "penny pincher" and for clipping coupons for the White House staff.  Her recipe for "Mamie's million dollar fudge" was printed in many publications and reproduced by American housewives.

                    When the Eisenhowers left the White House in 1961, they retired to their farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which was their first permanent home.  After Ike's death in 1969, Mamie continued to live on the farm full time until the late 1970's when she took an apartment in Washington, D.C.

                    When Mamie suffered a stroke on September 25, 1979, she was rushed to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the same place that Ike died ten years earlier.  She was still in the hospital on October 31 when she told her granddaughter, Mary Jean Eisenhower, that she would die the next day.  She obviously knew it was her time to go because she died early in the morning of November 1, just a few weeks before her 83rd birthday.  Mamie was buried next to her husband and her oldest son at Place of Meditation on the grounds of the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas.

                    Mamie has been honored in several different ways and places.  Boone, Iowa, Mamie's birthplace, was dedicated as a historic site in 1980; the only other First Lady to be so honored is Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams.  One of the east-west streets in Boone (Fourth Street) is now called Mamie Eisenhower Avenue.  Denver, Colorado, and the surrounding area also honored their connection with Mamie by naming a park in southeast Denver and a public library in Broomfield, a Denver suburb, after Mamie.

Universal Studios gave Hollywood starlet Joan Olander the stage name of Mamie Van Doren after the new First Lady because she signed her contract with them on the day that President Eisenhower was inaugurated.

Facts and quotes for this article were found here and here.  


This version of Mamie's Million Dollar Fudge recipe appeared in Who Says We Can't Cook?, a spiral-bound collection of recipes published in 1955 by the Women's National Press Club of Washington, D.C. according to this site.  

[Boil together] for six minutes:

4 1/2 cups sugar

Pinch of salt

2 Tablespoons butter

1 tall can evaporated milk

Put in a large bowl:

12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

12 ounces German sweet chocolate

1 pint marshmallow cream

2 cups nutmeats

Pour boiling syrup over ingredients in bowl:  beat until chocolate is all melted; pour into pan.

Let stand a few hours before cutting.  Store in tin box.