The year was 1787 when the idea for the presidency was born at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Taking notes was James Madison which then thrust the room full of delegates into a sudden silence.
All knew it was a moment of fateful significance. After days of heated argument and changing opinions, the motion carried. Ever since, the presidency has been “at the mercy of the accident of personality” according to one commentator. By the turn of the 20th Century, just 41 members, all white, all men, all Christian.
They had been a tailor (Andrew Johnson), a tanner (Ulysses S. Grant), a one-time canal boy (James Garfield), a former rail-splitter (Abraham Lincoln), a frontier man (Andrew Jackson), a haberdasher (Harry Truman) and engineers, politicians, lawyers, an actor, a musician and oil men.
But what about their wives, the women who supported, encouraged, nurtured and sustained them while many contributed to the fabric of American culture in their own ways? I came upon the book “The American President” written by three Kunhardt men and released in 1999. Fascinating portraits of our presidents up to president Bill Clinton were delineated. So too were their wives… these chosen women who were of equal merit and manners.
Here you will have the pleasure of reading about a few of them.
• Abigail Adams wrote many letters and included her observations on the passing scene. She was a stern disciplinarian with her children. However, John Quincy had a lifelong adoration for his mother who died at 74. He wrote that she was “beloved and lamented more than language can express.” She was the wife of John Adams, second president.
• Frances Folsom Cleveland was a graduate of Wells College and 21 when the 49-year old bachelor Cleveland proposed to her in a letter. The marriage took place June 2, 1886 in the White House Blue Room. Only 25 guests were invited. John Philip Sousa directed the Marine band in the wedding march. A wedding banquet was held in the State Dining Room.
Eleanor Roosevelt was FDR’s closest advisor. He once called her “the most extraordinarily interesting woman he had ever met.” Eleanor would become America’s foremost defender of human rights.
• Lucy Webb Hayes was called “Lemonade Lucy” by the press because no liquor or wine was served in the Hayes White House. The couple would lead their guests to the conservatory because both were avid gardeners. Lucy was the first college graduate first lady. Hayes wrote that “Her low, sweet, voice is very winning. Her soft, rich, eye not often equaled. A heart as true as steel, I know.”
President LBJ (Lyndon Baines Johnson) wed Claudia Taylor in November 1934. Because she had been called Lady Bird as a child, she still was the president’s Lady Bird. She was his loving companion and constant advisor during his long career. She helped with editing his speech in which LBJ renounced his bid for reelection.
Her focus was on the beautification of America and she spearheaded the planting of Texas bluebells and wild flowers throughout the state. A trivia note: I took a student bus from ISU (Illinois State University) in Blooming/Normal because president Johnson was giving a speech at the courthouse in Peoria. I was right in front of him when he stood on a platform above my head. I reached out and touched his shoe. I guess I had more moxie at age 18 than I had experience!
Nine days into his presidency, Gerald Ford still commuted from his home in Alexandria, Va.. His wife, Betty, was seen saying goodbye to him when he left for work wearing a baseball cap and carrying the daily newspapers. Betty Bloomer was married to Ford in 1948 in the midst of his campaigning for a seat in Congress. Betty was a recent divorcee who had modeled, had danced at Martha Graham’s studio in New York, and was a fashion coordinator for a Grand Rapids, Mich. department store. She was vivacious and disciplined.
The United States can give thanks for these women of quality and perseverance.