Helen Herron Taft

                    Helen "Nellie" Louise Herron was born June 2, 1861 in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was the fourth child of Judge John Williamson Herron (1827-1912; law partner of Rutherford B. Hayes) and Harriet Collins (1833-1902).  Nellie attended and graduated from Cincinnati College of Music; she taught school for a short period of time before she married.  She and her parents were at the White Houses in 1877 to help President and Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.  Nellie was obviously comfortable around politicians because both her grandfather (Ela Collins) and her uncle (William Collins) were members of Congress.

                    Nellie met William Howard Taft at a bobsledding party in Cincinnati in 1879 when he was 22 years old and she was 18 years old.  Their first date was in February 1880, but they did not start regular dating until 1882.  He proposed in April 1885, and she waited until May to accept.

                    William and Nellie were married on June 19, 1886, in Cincinnati at her family home.  Reverend D.N.A. Hoge of Zanesville, Ohio, performed the ceremony and Horace Taft, young brother of the groom, was best man.  The newlyweds honeymooned in New York City for one day; then spent four days at Sea Bright, New Jersey, prior to touring Europe for three months.  Upon their return to the states, the couple settled in Cincinnati.

                    Even though William preferred the judiciary, Nellie was supportive of his political career; she welcomed each new step as he moved from state judge, to Solicitor General of the United States to federal circuit court judge.  William was appointed in 1900 to be in charge of the American civil government in the Philippines.  Nellie enjoyed even more travel when William became Secretary of War in 1904; she widened her knowledge of world politics and enlarged her circle of cosmopolitan friends.

                    Nellie and her husband became parents of two sons and a daughter:  Robert Alphonso Taft (1889-1953; political leader), Helen Taft (1891-1987; educator), and Charles Phelps Taft II (1897-1983; civic leader).  

                    Mrs. Taft was the first wife of a president to accompany her husband down Pennsylvania Avenue on Inauguration Day.  Mrs. Taft suffered a stroke two months later; she never recovered from the stroke, which impaired her speech.  She was able to entertain moderately with the help of her sisters, and she received guests in the Red Room three afternoons each week.  On June 19, 1911, President and Mrs. Taft entertained 8,000 guests to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary.

                    Mrs. Taft made a lasting contribution when she arranged for 3,000 Japanese cherry trees to be planted in the Washington Tidal Basin.  She was joined by the wife of the Japanese ambassador when she planted the first two saplings on March 27, 1912.  Everyone who has enjoyed the beautiful cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C. has Mrs. Taft to thank for it.

                    One of the major political debates during the Taft Administration was prohibition.  President Taft did not drink alcohol, but he opposed prohibition during his presidency and as Chief Justice; as First Lady, Mrs. Taft served alcohol to her guests.  President Taft wrote letters supporting the objectives of Prohibition in his last years.  As Taft was the only man to serve as both President and Chief Justice, Mrs. Taft became the only woman to be First Lady and wife of a Chief Justice. 

                    Nellie Taft passed away on May 22, 1943, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery next to her husband.

                   

Lou Henry Hoover

                    Lou Henry was born on March 29, 1874 in Waterloo, Iowa to Charles Delano Henry (banker) and his wife, Florence Ida Weed.   Lou grew up in Waterloo, Whittier (California), and Monterey (California) and apparently was quite the tom boy.  Lou's "greatest pleasure in her early teens" was to go camping in the hills with her father.  She became a "fine horsewoman;" she hunted "and preserved specimens with the skill of a taxidermist; she developed an enthusiasm for rocks, minerals, and mining."  Lou was a student at San Jose Normal School (later San Jose State University) and enrolled at Stanford University in 1894.  She was the only female majoring in geology.  She met a senior, Herbert Hoover, in her first year at Stanford.

                    Before Hoover graduated the following June, the young couple had an understanding but postponed a wedding "while she continued her education and he pursued his engineering career in Australia."  Hoover "cabled a marriage proposal" when Lou graduated from Stanford in 1898; Lou "promptly accepted by return wire."

                    Both bride and groom were 24 years old when they married at the home of the bride's parents in Monterey, California, on February 10, 1899.  Lou had been raised Episcopalian but became a Quaker; there was not a Quaker Meeting in Monterey so the civil marriage ceremony was performed by Father Ramon Mestres, a Roman Catholic priest.

                    The newlyweds sailed from San Francisco the next day for Shanghai, China, where they stayed at the Astor House Hotel for four days.  They set up housekeeping in a large house in Tianjin, where Hoover had a job that "required extensive travel throughout remote, primitive and dangerous areas.  Lou traveled with her husband and was with him during the Boxer Rebellion.  She had a "natural ear for languages" and quickly became proficient in Chinese.  Their language skills in Chinese became handy during their White House years when they would "converse in Chinese to foil eavesdroppers."  Lou Hoover is "the only First Lady to speak an Asian language.

                    Herbert and Lou eventually had two sons.  Herbert Charles Hoover, Jr. (1903 in London, England -1969 in Pasadena, California) "had traveled around the world twice with his globe-trotting parents" by the time he was two years old.  He graduated from Stanford University in 1925 and worked as an aircraft engineer as well as teaching for a brief period of time (1929-1929) at the Harvard Business School.  "Eventually he turned to geophysical engineering, founded the United Geophysical Company in 1935 and developed new electronic instruments to discover oil.  He mediated the 1953-1954 oil dispute between Britain and Iran "that provided for the latter to nationalize its petroleum."  He served in the Eisenhower Administration (1954-1957) as under-secretary of state for Middle Eastern affairs.

                    Allan Henry Hoover (1907 in London, England - 1993 in Portola Valley, California) graduated in economics from Stanford University in 1929 and earned a master's degree in 1931 from Harvard Business School.  He was in the banking industry as well as operated a ranch in California.  He eventually became a mining engineer.  He was a private man who shunned publicity throughout his career.

                    Lou Hoover "became a cultivated scholar and linguist" and a great assistant to her husband while he provided relief for Belgian refugees during World War I.  King Albert I of Belgium recognized her work in 1919.  While her husband was involved in the Administrations of President Harding and President Coolidge, Mrs. Hoover served as the national president of the Girl Scouts of the USA (1922-1925 and 1935-1937).  She was honored by having Camp Lou Henry Hoover in Middleville, New Jersey, named for her; the camp is run by the Heart of New Jersey Council of the Girl Scouts.

                    The official residence for the President of Stanford University is the Lou Henry and Herbert Hoover House in Palo Alto's foothills.  This house is near the campus's Hoover Tower, home of the Hoover Institution and is designated as a National Historic Landmark.  Mrs. Hoover also had two elementary schools named after her:  Lou Henry Hoover Elementary School in Whittier (1938) and Lou Henry Elementary School in Waterloo in 2005.  At San Jose State University one of brick dorms known as "The Classics" was named "Hoover Hall" in honor of Mrs. Hoover.  Lou funded the construction of the Lou Henry Hoover Girl Scout House, the first Girl Scout house in Palo Alto, California; this house is the "oldest Girl Scout House in continuous use in the country."

                    While she was First Lady, Mrs. Hoover oversaw the building of the presidential retreat at Rapidan Camp in Virginia.  She distinguished herself by being the first First Lady to have regular broadcasts as a guest speaker on a number of occasions from 1929 through 1933.  She advocated for volunteerism or discussed the work of the Girl Scouts.  "Radio critics praised her for having an excellent radio voice and for speaking with confidence."  She also discontinued the New Year's Day reception, an annual event started by Abigail Adams.

                    Mrs. Hoover died of a heart attack on January 7, 1944, in New York City, twenty years previous to Herbert's death in 1964.  Lou was originally buried in Palo Alto, California, but was reburied next to the President at West Branch, Iowa, in 1964.

Martha Jefferson

                Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson  had a very interesting and twisted family history.  She was born on October 19, 1748, on "The Forest" plantation, Charles City County, Virginia, the only child of the marriage between her mother and father.  She never knew her mother because her mother died two weeks and three days after Martha's birth.

Martha's father, John Wayles, was an English immigrant who became a barrister and landowner (January 31, 1715, Lancaster, England - May 23, 1773, Charles City County, Virginia).  Her maternal great-great-grandparents, Francis and Frances Eppes, emigrated from England to Virginia sometime before 1659.  Her mother, Martha Eppes Wayles, (April 10, 1712, Bermuda Hundred, Chesterfield County, Virginia - November 5, 1748) married John Wayles on May 3, 1746. 

 

                    At the time she married John Wayles, Martha Eppes had a dowry that included an African slave woman and the woman's half-black, half-white daughter.  The woman was taken from Africa and brought to Virginia on a slave ship.  The English sea captain, Captain Hemings, impregnated the slave; the child was a daughter named Betty Hemings.  The parents of Martha Eppes purchased the slave and her daughter and gave Betty Hemings to their daughter Martha Eppes.  Captain Hemings tried to purchased Betty and her mother, but John Wayles refused to sell them.

                    After the death of Martha Epps Wayles, John Wayles married Mary Cocke with whom he had one daughter (name unknown) who died young.  John Wayles married a third wife, Elizabeth Lomax, on January 3, 1760, with whom he had three daughters.  After Elizabeth Lomax died on May 28, 1763, John Wayles took the half-black, half-white Betty Hemings as a concubine with whom he had six children.  John Wayles left proof of this relationship by mentioning Betty Hemings in his will.

                    The history becomes even more entangled.  Reuben Skelton, the first husband of Elizabeth Lomax, was also the brother of Martha Jefferson's first husband, Bathurst Skelton; thus he was not only the brother-in-law of Martha Wayles Skelton but also her stepmother's first husband.

                    The entanglement continues.  Martha Wayles Skelton was the eldest of her father's eleven children and had seven half-sisters and three half-brothers.  Her first half-sister was the child of her father's second marriage and died young with her name unknown.  The next three half-sisters were Elizabeth Wayles Eppes, Tabitha Wayles, and Anne "Nance" Wayles Skipworth, daughters of the third marriage.  The last three half-sisters - Thenia Hemings (born 1767), Critta Hemings (1769-1827), and Sally Hemings (1773-1835) - and the three half-brothers - Robert Hemings (1762-1819), Hemings (born 1765), and Peter Hemings (born 1770) - were born out of wedlock to John Wayles and his half-white half-black slave Betty Hemings.

                    Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson was described as being above medium height with a slight build, auburn hair, and hazel eyes.  She was affiliated with the Church of England.  There is no record that she received any formal education.  She probably was taught by traveling tutors and educated in literature, poetry, French, Bible study.  She probably received lengthy training and was accomplished in playing the pianoforte and the harpsichord.  Being a young woman of wealth and privilege, she was most likely well trained in sewing and nursing.  She probably was socially accomplished as well and participated in entertaining guests on the plantation.  She was capable of running a plantation, making basic household supplies, and accounting for the crop business.

                    Martha was only eighteen years old when she married Bathurst Skelton (June 1744-September 30, 1768), a planter, on November 20, 1766; the marriage probably took place at "The Forest" plantation.  The couple lived at the groom's Charles City County plantation until his death in 1768 - only one year and ten months after the marriage.  One child was born to this couple, a son named John Skelton (1767-1771).

                    Martha was 23 years old when she married Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 - July 4, 1826) on January 1, 1772, at "The Forest" plantation.  Jefferson was a lawyer and a member of the House of Burgesses for Albemarle County (1769-1775).  The couple honeymooned in a cottage on the land that would later be known as "Monticello" and later built the mansion.  This couple were the parents of five daughters and one son:  Martha "Patsy" Jefferson Randolph (1772-1836), Jane Randolph Jefferson (1774-1775), an unnamed son who died as an infant in 1777, Maria "Polly" Jefferson Eppes (1778-1804), Lucy Elizabeth Jefferson (1780-1781, and Lucy Elizabeth Jefferson (1782-1785).  This meant that Martha bore seven children in a fourteen year period of time.

Another interest twist in the family history was in the marriage of Polly Jefferson and John Wayles Eppes (1773-1823).  They were first cousins because their mothers - Martha Wayles Jefferson and Elizabeth Wayles Eppes - were half-sisters; they were also second cousins because her maternal grandmother Martha Eppes Wayles and his paternal grandfather Richard Eppes were siblings.

                    Martha Jefferson ran the plantation life at Monticello, which consisted of reading recipes to slaves, overseeing food preparation and preservation, clothing needs for both family and slaves, and managing the house slaves and their duties.  She left a "precise ledger of the plantation's main cash crop, tobacco, suggesting she worked with Jefferson more as a full partner in this one aspect of life at Monticello than would be otherwise usual."  There are "contemporary accounts of visitors and guests at Monticello" that suggested that Martha, with her beauty, grace and musical skills, was an active hostess when healthy.  Martha and Thomas read literature and poetry to each other and played musical duets with Thomas playing the violin.

                    Mrs. Jefferson probably accompanied her husband to Williamsburg when the House of Burgesses was in session, but she was not with him in Philadelphia when he was the Virginia delegate to the Second Continental Congress in 1776 and wrote the Declaration of Independence.  While Thomas was Governor of Virginia and with a request from Martha Washington, Martha headed "a list of prominent Virginia women donating necessities and financial support and making other voluntary efforts on behalf of the Continental Army."   Martha's health began to decline while Thomas was Governor of Virginia during the American Revolution (1779-1781).

                    When Lord Cornwallis and the British forces invaded Virginia in 1781, Martha and her family were forced to flee Monticello and go to a more isolated property in Bedford County called "Poplar Forest."  Sixteen-month-old Lucy became ill and died weeks later.  Jefferson resigned his position as Governor and promised Martha that he would not take any more political positions.  The first position he refused was a diplomatic mission to Europe.  Martha died four months after giving birth to her youngest child.

                    Martha was instrumental in what became a problem in Jefferson's life and legacy.  When her father passed away in 1772, Martha inherited a lot of property - 11,000 acres of land (kept 5,000) and slaves, including her half-siblings.  When Martha married Jefferson, this property became his by law - including the half-siblings-in-law, Thenia, Critta, Sally, Robert, and James Hemings.  He also inherited the debts of his father-in-law - which added to his own financial problems after he left the White House.

                    The half-siblings were one-quarter African-American and three-quarters white as well as being related to Martha Jefferson.  As such, they occupied a "unique role" in the Jefferson family.  They were called "servants" instead of "slaves" and worked as personal and private servants.  Robert purchased his freedom in 1790.  James had a close relationship with Jefferson and went to Paris where he studied the culinary French arts; when he returned to Virginia "he trained his younger brother Peter to oversee the detailed French cooking that Jefferson now insisted on serving".  Jefferson gave James his freedom.  Thenia was sold to a family friend, the future President James Monroe.  Critta helped raise her half-nieces.

                    Rumors floated and became a scandal during the Jefferson Administration that he and his half-sister-in-law Sally Hemings had an illegitimate relationship after the death of Martha Jefferson.  DNA tests "believed" to be "accurate by officials at Monticello" indicate that someone in the Jefferson male line fathered at least one of Sally Hemings' children.  The tests could not prove that Jefferson was the father.

                    Martha Jefferson died 18 years previous to the time that Thomas was elected as President in 1800 and became the first of five women who died prior to their husbands becoming President.  She died at age 33 on September 6, 1782, at Monticello, Virginia.  She was buried at Monticello, Virginia.  Only one of Martha's children, Patsy, survived Thomas Jefferson.

                     

          

Julia Dent Grant

                    Julia Boggs Dent was born on January 26, 1826, at White Haven plantation west of St. Louis, Missouri; she was the daughter of Colonel Frederick Dent and his wife Ellen Wrenshall-Dent.  Her father was a slaveholding planter and merchant.  Julia was described as "rather plain in appearance," and she "squinted through crossed eyes."  She described her girlhood as being "one long summer of sunshine, flowers, and smiles" in her memoirs prepared in her later years and unpublished until 1975.

                    Julia attended a boarding school in St. Louis for seven years; her schoolmates were daughters of other affluent parents.  Julia excelled in art and voice and was a "social favorite" in that circle.

                    Ulysses was a classmate at West Point of Julia's brother Frederick and met Julia at her home.  The relationship blossomed, and Julia soon found herself "lonely" with Ulysses around and dreaming of him.  She agreed to wear his West Point ring, but she refused several marriage proposals before finally accepting.  They became engaged in 1844 while "sitting on the front steps of her beloved childhood home, a picturesque plantation called White Haven.  Their engagement lasted for four years because Ulysses was fighting in the Mexican-American War; Ulysses and Julia saw each other only one time during this time.

                    Julia Dent was 22 years old and Ulysses Grant was 26 years old when they married on August 22, 1848 at White Haven plantation.  An interesting fact about their marriage is that neither of their fathers approved of it.  Julia's father disapproved because Ulysses was a career soldier with bleak prospects; Ulysses' father disapproved because the Dents owned slaves.  The Grants refused to attend their son's wedding, but they later accepted Julia.

                    Ulysses and Julia "gave each other a life-long loyalty," and their marriage met all the tests of adversity.  Julia was a loyal army wife who accompanied Ulysses to his military posts where she passed "uneventful days at distant garrisons."  When Ulysses was ordered West in 1852, Julia went to stay with his parents.  Two years after Grant returned from this separation, he resigned his commission and tried farming and business at St. Louis.  When these new ventures failed, he took his family back home to Galena, Illinois, in 1860.  Ulysses worked in his father's leather goods store until the outbreak of the Civil War called him back to duty as a soldier with the Illinois volunteers.  Whenever possible, Julia joined her husband near the scene of his action.

                    The Grants eventually became parents of three sons and a daughter:  Frederick Dent Grant (1850-1912; soldier, public official), Ulysses Simpson Grant, Jr. (1852-1929; known as "Buck"; lawyer), Ellen Wrenshall Grant (1855-1922; known as "Nellie"; homemaker), and Jesse Root Grant (1858-1934; engineer).

                    Julia rejoiced in her husband's "fame as a victorious general."  When she entered the White House in 1869, she described the time as "the happiest period" of her life.  The wives of the Cabinet members were her allies, and Mrs. Grant "entertained extensively and lavishly."  The wedding of their daughter Nellie in 1874 was the social highlight of their years in the White House.  Julia's contemporaries "noted her finery, jewels, and silks and laces."  During her years as First Lady, someone suggested that she have surgery to correct her crossed eyes; President Grant rejected the idea because "he liked her that way."

                    When the Grants left the White House in 1877, they began a "journey of triumphs" on a worldwide trip.  Julia was very pleased with the "details of hospitality" and the "magnificent gifts" given to them.  Their trip was highlighted by an "overnight stay and dinner hosted for them by Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle in England."  The couple also enjoyed touring the Far East and their cordial reception by the Emperor and Empress of Japan at their Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

                    The Grants lost everything they owned with a business failure in 1884.  While suffering with cancer and facing death, Grant wrote his "famous personal memories".  The proceeds from the publishing of his memories along with her widow's pension enabled Julia to "live in comfort, surrounded by children and grandchildren, until her own death on December 14, 1902, at age 76."

                    Julia was the first First Lady to write her memoir, The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant (Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant.  She was however unable to find anyone to publish her memoirs, which were not published until nearly 75 years after her death.

                    In 1897 Julia attended the dedication of Grant's monumental tomb, which overlooks the Hudson River in New York City. She was later interred in a sarcophagus beside her beloved husband.  She ended her memories of their years together by declaring "the light of his glorious fame still reaches out to me, falls upon me, and warms me."

                   

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Eleanor Roosevelt

                    Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born on October 11, 1884, in New York City to Elliott and Anna Hall Roosevelt.  She was named Anna after her mother and her aunt Anna Cowles; she was named Eleanor after her father and called "Ellie" or "Little Nell".  Her nicknames may have been used to distinguish her from her mother and aunt, but she apparently preferred the name Eleanor from a young age. 

Eleanor was the niece of President Theodore Roosevelt.  She had two younger brothers - Elliott Roosevelt, Jr. (1889-93) and Hall Roosevelt (1891-1941) and one half brother - Elliott Roosevelt Mann (born to Katy Mann, a family servant; died 1941).  Eleanor and her family were part of New York high society and lived in a world of great wealth and privilege.

Roosevelt behaved in "old fashioned" ways so much that her own mother called her "Granny".  Even though living in a world of privilege and wealth, Eleanor suffered great childhood heartaches.  Her mother and brother - Elliott, Jr. - died of diphtheria when Eleanor was eight years old.  Her father was an alcoholic who was confined to a sanitarium; he died two years after his wife.  Eleanor was raised by her maternal grandmother, Mary Ludlow Hall (1843-1919) at Tivoli, New York.  Is it any wonder that she was described in a biography as being "insecure and starved for affection" and considered herself to be "ugly".  She understood while still a young teenager that physical beauty did not always determine a person's prospects in life.  

Eleanor had private tutors until she was 15 and sent to Allenswood Academy, a private finishing school near London, England.  She was encouraged to "cultivate independent thinking" by the headmistress of the academy.  Eleanor became fluent in French and gained self-confidence at the academy.

Roosevelt ended her formal education and returned to the United States in 1902 at age 17.  She was a debutante at a ball held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on December 14, 1902, and was later given a debutante party.  She was a member of the New York Junior League and volunteered as a social worker in New York City's East Side slums.

Eleanor met her father's fifth cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1902 and was "overwhelmed when the 20-year-old dashing Harvard University student demonstrated affection for her.  Franklin and Eleanor began courting after she attended a White House reception and had dinner with her uncle, President Theodore Roosevelt on New Year's Day, 1903.  Franklin was a "sheltered young man" until Eleanor took him on a "walking tour" through the squalid tenements.

Franklin and Eleanor became engaged in November 1904, but Franklin's mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, insisted that the engagement not be announced until December 1, 1904.  Sara did not approve of Eleanor and took her son on a cruise in an effort to take Franklin's mind off Eleanor.  Her efforts did not work because Franklin returned from the cruise with "renewed ardor" for Eleanor.  President Roosevelt agreed to give the bride away; therefore, the wedding date was fixed according to his schedule.  The President's participation in the wedding "focused national attention on the wedding."

Eleanor was 20 years old and Franklin was 23 years old when they married on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1905, in New York City.  The ceremony was performed by the Reverend Dr. Endicott Peabody, the groom's headmaster at Groton School.  The newlyweds went on a short honeymoon at Hyde Park before they began living in an apartment in New York City.  They took a formal honeymoon, a three-month tour of Europe, the following summer.

Upon their return from Europe, Eleanor and Franklin settled in a house provided by Franklin's mother; they also spent time at the family's Hyde Park estate overlooking the Hudson River.  Franklin's mother apparently had control of all household matters.  I assume that Eleanor felt great relief and freedom when Franklin was elected to the state senate and they moved to Albany, New York.

Franklin and Eleanor became parents of six children, five of whom survived infancy:  Anna Eleanor, Jr. (3 May 1906-1 December 1975; journalist, public relations official), James (23 December 1907-13 August 1991); businessman, congressman, author), Franklin Delano, Jr. (18 March 1909-1 November 1909; died at age seven months), Elliott (23 September 1910-27 October 1990; businessman, mayor, author), Franklin Delano, Jr. (17 August 1914-17 August 1988; businessman, congressman, farmer; John Aspinwall (13 March 1916-27 April 1981; merchant, stockbroker).

The family began to spend summers at Campobello Island, New Brunswick, located on the Maine-Canada border.  While there, Franklin was stricken with a paralytic illness in August 1921; this illness resulted in his legs being permanently paralyzed.  Experts at the time though he had poliomyelitis, but later research indicates it was more likely Guillain-Barre syndrome.  Eleanor gave Franklin devoted attention and later prodded him to return to active life.  In order to compensate for his immobility, Eleanor overcame her shyness and began to make public appearances on his behalf.  She was supportive of him "as a listening post and barometer of popular sentiment."

Eleanor had a relationship with her future mother-in-law long before she fell in love with her distant relative Franklin.  After her marriage to Franklin, her relationship with her mother-in-law was contentious and difficult.  Sara wanted to be a good mother to Eleanor but considered Eleanor to be unprepared for the role of wife to her son; Eleanor valued Sara's opinions but resented her domineering behavior.  Historians continue to study the relationship between Sara and Eleanor.

There were also difficulties in the relationship between the "Hyde Park Roosevelt family" and the "Oyster Bay Roosevelt family."  President Theodore Roosevelt was a Republican while Franklin was a Democrat so there were political differences.  President Roosevelt admired his niece Eleanor, and his eldest daughter Alice - "beautiful, highly photogenic, but rebellious and self-absorbed" - did not appreciate her father asking, "Why can't you be more like `cousin Eleanor'?"  From early in their lives, Eleanor and Alice had a life-long strained relationship.  Alice had a friendly relationship with Franklin and promoted Franklin's affair with Lucy Mercer - probably an underhanded way to undermine Eleanor.  She once said, "He deserved a good time" because "he was married to Eleanor."

Eleanor discovered the affair when she found letters from Lucy in Franklin's luggage in September 1918.  She was extremely hurt and demanded that he end the affair or she would file for divorce.  Franklin's mother threatened to disinherit him if he got a divorce, and his political advisors pleaded with both Eleanor and Franklin to save the marriage for the sake of their children and his political career.

The marriage survived even though Eleanor insisted that their physical relationship end.  Even though Franklin agreed to

end the affair, Lucy began visiting him in the 1930's and was with him at Warm Springs, Georgia, when he died on April 12, 1945.

Eleanor became a different woman and sought to achieve fulfillment through her own achievements.  Eleanor had close relationships with both women and men, but there are questions about how close the relationships were.

Eleanor supported Franklin in his political career, both as governor of New York and as President of the United States.  She supported his New Deal policies and was an advocate for civil rights.  After Franklin's death in 1945, she continued as an international author, speaker, politician, and activist for the New Deal coalition.  She worked to "enhance the status of working women" but she opposed the Equal Rights Amendment on the grounds that she believed it would have adverse effects on women.  She also supported the formation of the United Nations and was appointed by President Harry S. Truman and confirmed by the US Senate to be a delegate to the UN General Assembly from 1945 to 1952.  While at the United Nations, "she chaired the committee that drafted and approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."  She was called the "First Lady of the World" by President Truman because of her human rights achievements.

Mrs. Roosevelt continued to be active in politics for the rest of her life.  She was instrumental in starting a second wave of feminism after President John F. Kennedy appointed her as chair of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women.  Eleanor received many honors.  She was ranked in the top ten of Gallup's 1999 List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century.

Eleanor was struck by a car in New York City in April 1960 and her health rapidly declined.  She was treated with cortisone which activated the dormant tuberculosis from years earlier, and she was diagnosed with bone marrow tuberculosis.  She died at age 78 at her Manhattan home on November 7, 1962.  President Kennedy ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff in her honor.  UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson said, "The United States, the United Nations, the world, has lost one of its great citizens."

President John F. Kennedy and former Presidents Truman and Eisenhower attended Eleanor's funeral at Hyde Park.  She was buried on November 10, 1962, next to Franklin in the family compound in Hyde Park, New York.

  

Rachel Jackson

                    The woman known as Rachel Jackson was born Rachel Donelson  on June 15, 1767, in Halifax County, Virginia.  She was among the first settlers of Tennessee and was considered to be "beautiful" as a young woman and "quite vivacious."  She had an unhappy marriage in Kentucky with Captain Lewis Robards due to his irrational fits of jealous rage; she separated from him in 1790.

                    Andrew Jackson migrated to Tennessee in 1788 and boarded with Rachel's mother, Rachel Stockley Donelson.  Rachel, the daughter, apparently went home to live with her mother when she separated from her husband.  At any rate, Jackson met the beautiful Rachel, and the two of them fell in love and married in 1791.

                    The couple married on the belief that Robards had obtained a divorce.  Historians discovered that a friend of Lewis Robards had planted a fake notice in his own newspaper of the divorce being finalized.  Andrew and Rachel did not discover the problem until after they were married.  The fact that Rachel was not yet divorced made their marriage technically bigamous and invalid.  Rachel took the necessary steps to ensure that the divorce was completed - the first divorce in Kentucky history.  Then she remarried Andrew in 1794 after the divorce was finalized.  Andrew and Rachel "enjoyed a genuine love match."

                    Rachel and Andrew apparently did not have any children together but adopted three sons:  Theodore (an Indian about whom little is known), Andrew Jackson, Jr. (the son of Severn Donelson, Rachel's brother), and Lyncoya (a Creek Indian orphan adopted by Jackson after the Creek War; he died of tuberculosis in 1828 at age 16). 

                    The Jacksons were also guardians for eight other children.  Three of them - John Samuel Donelson, Daniel Smith Donelson, and Andrew Jackson Donelson - were the sons of Samuel Donelson, Rachel's brother who died in 1804.  Andrew Jackson Hutchings was Rachel's orphaned grand nephew.  Four of the children - Caroline Butler, Eliza Butler, Edward Butler, and Anthony Butler - were the orphaned children of Edward Butler, a friend of the Jacksons.

                    When Andrew Jackson ran for President in the 1828 campaign, supporters of his opponent, John Quincy Adams, accused Rachel of being a bigamist and other things.  Some historians consider the 1828 election to be "one of the most notorious in terms of campaign insults."  Since Jackson had been a popular military hero after his victory in the Battle of New Orleans (War of 1812), he won by a "comparative landslide." 

Rachel went shopping to purchase a new dress for the inauguration and dropped dead in the street.  She died of a sudden heart attack on December 22, 1828, at age 61, two weeks after the election and two months before Jackson took office as President.  Since the Adams team had repeatedly ridiculed Rachel during campaign, Andrew blamed John Quincy Adams for hastening her death and never forgave him.

Andrew was "inconsolable" at her death. "He refused to believe she was dead and insisted that blankets be laid on her body in case she woke up and needed warmth."  He built a tomb for her in her flower garden and wrote the following epitaph for her:  "Here lie the remains of Mrs. Rachel Jackson, wife of President Jackson, who died December 22nd 1828, aged 61.  Her face was fair, her person pleasing, her temper amiable, and her heart kind.  She delighted in relieving the wants of her fellow-creatures and cultivated that divine pleasure by the most liberal and unpretending methods.  To the poor she was a benefactress; to the rich she was an example; to the wretched a comforter; to the prosperous an ornament.  Her pity went hand in hand with her benevolence; and she thanked her Creator for being able to do good.  A being so gentle and so virtuous, slander might wound but could not dishonor.  Even death, when he tore her from the arms of her husband, could but transplant her to the bosom of her God."

Jackson never really recovered from losing his beloved wife.  He once said, "Heaven will be no heaven for me if she is not there."  "According to his granddaughter, Rachel Jackson Lawrence, Andrew visited Rachel's grave every night at sunset.  He placed her portrait at the foot of his bed so she would be the first thing he saw in the morning and the last thing he saw at night."  Jackson never remarried.

Barbara Pierce Bush

                    Barbara Pierce Bush is the wife of George H. W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States; as such, she served as First Lady from 1989 to 1993.  She is also the mother of George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, and Jeb Bush, former Governor of Florida.

Barbara Pierce was born on June 8, 1925, in Flushing, New York, as the third child of Marvin Pierce (1893-1969) and Pauline Robinson Pierce (1896-1949).  Her father later became the president of McCall Corporation, the publisher of the popular women's Redbook and McCall's.  Barbara's siblings include Martha Pierce Rafferty (1920-1999), James Pierce (1921-1993), and Scott Pierce (born 1930).  She is a descendent of Thomas Pierce, an early New England colonist who is also an ancestor of President Franklin Pierce.  Barbara is a fourth cousin, four times removed of President Pierce, the 14th President of the United States.

                    Barbara attended Rye Country Day School, Ashley Hall in Charleston, South Carolina (1940-1943).  She was athletic as a youth and enjoyed riding bikes, swimming, and tennis.  She also learned to enjoy reading very early in her life.  [As a mother she gathered her family together in the evenings to read together.  This interest in reading continued when she was the wife of the Vice President and President of the United States when she supported and advanced the cause of universal literacy.  While she was First Lady, she founded the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and has continued to advance this cause since leaving the White House.]

                    When Barbara was sixteen years old, she attended a dance over Christmas vacation and met George Herbert Walker Bush who was then a student at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.  George and Barbara dated for a year and a half and became engaged just prior to his leaving to serve as a Navy torpedo bomber pilot in World War II.  George named three of his planes after his sweetheart:  Barbara, Barbara II, and Barbara III.

                    Barbara dropped out of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts when George returned on leave in 1945, and the couple married two weeks later on January 6, 1945 in the First Presbyterian Church in Rye, New York.  The couple moved around the Eastern United States for the first eight months of their marriage as George's Navy squadron training required him at bases in Michigan, Maryland, and Virginia.

                    The couple became parents of six children: George W. Bush (1946), Pauline Bush (1949-1953; known as Robin; died of Leukemia), John Ellis Bush (1953; known as Jeb Bush), Marvin Bush (1955), and Dorothy Bush Koch (1959).  [The couple have five living children and 14 grandchildren.]  The death of Robin is credited with turning Barbara's hair from light brown to chalk white.

                    After George graduated from Yale University, the family moved to Odessa, Texas, in 1950 where he entered the oil industry.  The couple moved 29 times during their marriage.  George founded his own oil company, the successful Zapata Corporation, and became a millionaire by age 40.  Because George was away so much on oil business and later in politics, Barbara assumed the major responsibilities for rearing the children.

                    Barbara supported and accompanied her husband in the many elected and appointed positions in the U.S. Congress, the Executive branch, and government-related posts.  She supported the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and was pro-choice on abortion - as did her husband.

                    Mrs. Bush became well-known while she served eight years as the Second Lady of our nation.  She became action in adult and childhood literacy issues because her son Neil was diagnosed with dyslexia.  She researched and learned the factors that led to childhood and adult illiteracy; she believed that homelessness was connected to illiteracy and worked to combat both.

                    Barbara spoke at the 1988 national party convention when her husband was campaigning for President.  "She promised voters that she would be a traditional first lady and campaigned actively for her husband."  Mrs. Bush was compared with Nancy Reagan, particularly her interest in church, gardening, and family time as well as her emphasis on style, fashion, designer clothing and her white hair. 

As First Lady, Barbara continued to work for more literacy and eventually founded the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.  She was also involved with the White House Historical Association and revitalizing the White House Preservation Fund - which she renamed the White House Endowment Trust.  This "trust raises funds for the ongoing refurbishment and restoration of the White House."  She set and met a goal to raise $25 million for the trust fund.

                    Barbara is well known for her beloved pet English Springer Spaniel named Millie.  She wrote a children's book about Millie and her new puppies.  She received the Henry G. Freeman Jr. Pin Money Fund - $36,000, "most of which she gave to favorite charities.  Barbara and George continue to be active in political circles and have announced their support for Mitt Romney.

Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams

                    Louisa Catherine Johnson was born on February 12, 1775, in London, England, to Joshua Johnson and Catherine Nuth-Johnson.  Her father was an American merchant, who was originally from Maryland and served as United States consul general in London after 1790.  Her mother was an Englishwoman.  Louisa had six sisters and one brother:  Ann, Caroline, Harriet, Catherine, Elizabeth, Adelaide, and Thomas.  Louisa's family moved from London to Nantes, France to find refuge during the American Revolution.  Louisa was four years old when she first met John Quincy Adams (age twelve) then traveling through France with his father.

                    The second meeting between Louisa and John Quincy Adams took place in London, where her father was serving as American consul.  John was at first more interested in Louisa's older sister but soon turned his attention to Louisa.  John was 30 years old and Louisa was 22 years old when they married on July 26, 1797, at All Hallows Barking parish in London, England.  John Adams was at the time serving at President of the United States and objected to John Quincy marrying a non-American; however, he overcame his objections and welcome Louisa into his family.

                    Louisa and John Quincy became parents of four children:  George Washington Adams (1801-1829; lawyer), John Adams, II (1803-1834; presidential aide), Charles Francis Adams (1807-1886; diplomat, public official, author), and Louisa Catherine Adams (1811-1812).

                    Louisa's parents left Europe in 1797 to move to the United States.  After bankruptcy, her father was appointed by President John Adams as U.S. Director of Stamps and died in Frederick, Maryland, in 1802 of severe fever and some mental problems.  Her mother died in 1811.

                    Louisa was sickly with migraine headaches and frequent fainting spells.  Over the course of her marriage, she suffered several miscarriages.

                    When John Quincy was appointed as Minister to Russia, Louisa took two-year-old Charles Francis Adams with her but left her two older sons in Massachusetts for education.  The tsar's court was glamorous, but the winters were cold.  Louisa also had to deal with "strange customs, limited funds, and poor health;" her only daughter was born in 1811 and died in 1812.

                    John Quincy went from Russia to Ghent in 1814 for peace negotiations and then to London.  In order for Louisa to join him, she endured a "forty-day journey across war-ravaged Europe by coach in winter and roving bands of stragglers and highwaymen" and "`unspeakable terrors' for her son."

                    Louisa and her family moved to Washington, D.C. in 1817 when John Quincy was appointed by President James Monroe as U.S. Secretary of State.  Her "drawing room became a center for the diplomatic corps and other notables.  Music enhanced her Tuesday Evenings at home, and theater parties contributed to her reputation as an outstanding hostess."

                    When John Quincy was elected as President, Louisa became the first First Lady to be foreign born.  Louisa's excitement of moving into the White House was "dimmed by the bitter politics of the election" and her own "deep depression."  She continued to hold her weekly events in her drawing rooms, but she preferred "quiet evenings of reading, composing music and verse, and playing her harp."  She became "reclusive" and "depressed."  There was even a time when she "regretted" marrying into the Adams family because she found the men to be "cold and insensitive."  "The necessary entertainments were always elegant, however; and her cordial hospitality made the last official reception a gracious occasion although her husband had lost his bid for re-election and partisan feeling still ran high."

                    When the family moved from the White House, Louisa thought they were moving to Massachusetts permanently, but her husband's election to the United States House of Representatives in 1831 (where he served for seventeen years) changed her plans.  Her two older sons died untimely deaths, which only added to her burdens.

                    John Quincy Adams died at the United States Capitol in 1848, and Louisa remained in Washington, D.C. until her own death of a heart attack on May 15, 1852, at the age of 77.  She is buried by his side - along with President John Adams and his wife Abigail - in the United First Parish Church in Quincy, Massachusetts.  This church is also known as the Church of the Presidents.

Abigail Adams

                    Abigail Adams was born on November 22, 1744, in the North Parish Congregational Church in Weymouth, Massachusetts, to Reverend William Smith and Elizabeth Quincy Smith.  She was their second born and had one brother and two sisters:  Mary Smith Cranch (1739/1741-1811), William Smith (1746-1787), Elizabeth (Betsy) Smith Shaw Peabody (1750-1815).

The Reverend William Smith (born January 29, 1706, Charlestown, Massachusetts; died September 2783, Weymouth, Massachusetts) was a liberal Congregationalist minister and a leader in society as was his forebears.  He emphasized the importance of reason and morality instead of teaching predestination, original sin, or the full divinity of Christ.  He was a supporter of the American Revolution and was known as the father of Abigail Adams, the father-in-law of John Adams, and the grandfather of John Quincy Adams.

Elizabeth Quincy (born 1721, Braintree, Massachusetts; died 1775, Weymouth, Massachusetts; married in 1740) was the daughter of John Quincy, a member of the colonial Governor's council and colonel of the militia.  Mr. Quincy was also Speaker of the Massachusetts Assembly for 40 years, ending at his death at age 77.  His interest in politics and his public service had a great influence on Abigail.  Through her mother, Abigail was a cousin of Dorothy Quincy, the wife of John Hancock.  She was also a great-granddaughter of the Rev. John Norton, founding pastor of Old Ship Church in Hingham, Massachusetts - the only remaining 17th-century Puritan meetinghouse in Massachusetts.

                    Abigail's ancestors were English and Welsh.  Her paternal great-grandfather, Thomas Smith, was born May 10, 1645, and left Dartmouth, England, to immigrate to Charleston, Massachusetts.  One of Abigail's great-great-great grandmothers came from a Welsh family.  Abigail's genealogy has been well-researched and her known roots preceded her birth by six centuries.  She descended from royal lines in France, Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Holland, Spain, Italy, Ireland, and Switzerland.

Abigail Smith was too sickly to receive formal schooling, but she and her sisters were taught to read, write, and cipher by

their mother.  The large libraries belonging to their father, uncle, and maternal grandfather enabled the girls to study English and French literature.  Abigail took special interest in philosophy, theology, Shakespeare, the classics, ancient history, government and law. 

Even though Abigail had no formal education, she was later known for advocating public education for girls equal to that given to boys.  Abigail was "an intellectually open-minded woman for her day" and had some distinct ideas on women's rights and government.  Her ideas eventually had a major but indirect effect on the founding of the United States.  She was "one of the most erudite women ever to serve as First Lady."

                    Abigail was described as being five feet 1 inch tall with brown hair and brown eyes.  There is no documentation showing that she worked in the parsonage activities with her father.  She was often in poor health and spent her time reading and writing letters.  She did not play cards, sing, or dance.

                    John and Abigail were third cousins and knew each other as children.  John's friend, Richard Cranch, was engaged to Abigail's older sister, Mary, when the two gentlemen visited the Smith home in 1762.  Abigail was 17 years old and perpetually reading, but John was quickly attracted to her.  He was surprised when he found out that Abigail was so well versed in poetry, philosophy, and politics because very few women were in that time period.

                    Abigail was 19 years old and John was almost 29 years old when they married on October 25, 1764, in the home of the bride's parents in Weymouth, Massachusetts.  The Reverend Smith approved of the married and performed the ceremony.  The mother of the bride was "appalled that her daughter would marry a country lawyer whose manners still reeked of the farm, but eventually she gave in."  The bride "wore a square-necked gown of white challis," and the groom wore "a dark blue coat, contrasting light breeches and white stockings, a gold-embroidered satin waistcoat his mother had made for the occasion, and buckle shoes." 

                    According to one source the newlyweds left "in a horse and carriage to a cottage that stood beside the one where John Adams had been born and raised.  This became their first home.  They moved to Boston in a series of rented homes before buying a large farm, `Peacefield,' in 1787, while John was Minister to Great Britain."

                    The other source said that "the couple mounted a single horse and rode off to their new home, the small cottage and farm that John had inherited from his father in Braintree, Massachusetts, before moving to Boston, where his law practice expanded."

                    Six children were born to the couple in the next ten years:  Abigail Amelia Adams Smith ("Nabby" - 1765-1813), John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), Susanna Boylston Adams (1768-1770), Charles Adams (1770-1800), Thomas Boylston Adams (1772-1832), and Elizabeth Adams (stillborn in 1777).

                    John and Abigail shared the management of the household finances and the farming of their property for sustenance while he practiced law in Boston.  While John was away on his long trips, Abigail was responsible for both family and farm.

                    When John Adams went to Philadelphia in 1774 as a delegate to the First Continental Congress, Abigail stayed at home.  It was during this separation that Abigail and John began their lifelong correspondence.  John sought advice from his wife frequently and on many matters; "their letters are filled with intellectual discussions on government and politics" and "serve as eyewitness accounts of the American Revolutionary War home front."  Their correspondence forms both a "rich archive that reflected the evolution of a marriage of the Revolutionary and Federal eras" as well as "a chronology of the public issues debated and confronted by the new nation's leaders."  

                    Abigail became the first Second Lady when John became the Vice President; when he was later elected as President, she became the second First Lady.  She was the wife of the second President and the mother of the sixth President, John Quincy Adams.  She was active in promoting the rights of married women and considered slavery to be "evil."

                    After John was defeated in his quest for a second term as President, the couple retired to Quincy in 1800.  "Lady Adams" died on October 28, 1818, of typhoid fever.  She was 73 years old but would have been 74 two weeks later.  She is buried beside her husband in a crypt located in the United First Parish Church (also known as the Church of the Presidents) in Quincy, Massachusetts.  She was Congregationalist but was buried in the Unitarian faith of her husband.  Her last words were, "Do not grieve, my friend, my dearest friend.  I am ready to go.  And John, it will not be long."  (John passed away on July 4, 1826.)