Dear Friends, This blog has been inactive even moribund for many months, a situation that this author is determined to correct. First an explanation - many interesting and rather long travels, to the Panama Canal, along the Danube, Vienna, and most recently a cruise from Sydney to Singapore. Another, and more than satisfying,...
From Policy Allies to Political Enemies John Quincy Adams, the sixth United States President, was succeeded in 1828 by Andrew Jackson, its seventh president. Their rivalry during both the 1824 and 1828 presidential campaigns became both politically intense and personally hateful. Jackson blamed Adams for the death of his beloved wife Rachel...
THOMAS JEFFERSON HAD HARSH WORDS FOR JACKSON'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN IN 1824. Daniel Webster visited the aged former president in his Monticello home in 1824. Webster quoted Jefferson as saying, "I feel much alarmed at the prospect of General Jackson President. He is one of the most unfit men I know of...
WHAT ARE FIRST LADY RESPONSIBILITIES, ACCORDING TO THE PROFESSIONAL ELITES? Professor Robert Watson in his 2000 reassessment of the office of the first lady, The President's Wives, listed eleven fundamental duties of the office. The first responsibility is that of a wife and mother. A total of fourteen first families have had...
Helen (Nellie) Taft was the wife of President William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States (1909-1913). While a teenager Nellie and her family were White House guests of President Rutherford and First Lady Lucy Hayes during the Christmas/New Year celebrations of 1877-8. John Herron, Helen Taft's father,...
Grover Cleveland is the only United States President to serve two non-consecutive terms (1885-9; 1893-7). Cleveland, when elected the first time, was and still remains the nation's only second bachelor president. However, in contrast with his predecessor James Buchanan, he married during his time in office. Rose successfully fulfilled the social,...
If not the First Lady herself, it may be her daughter. Nellie Taft, the accomplished and ambitious wife of President William Howard Taft (1909-1913), was the first First Lady to write her autobiography. She was not the last. Eleanor Roosevelt, the longest serving First Lady (1933-1945), wrote frequently about her life and...
Three former First Ladies of the United States are aging senior citizens. They appear in the public arena less and less. However, in view of their formidable personalities and decades of public service, it may be of some interest to check in on them. Nancy Reagan: Mrs. Reagan remains the oldest...
The most fearsome medical condition in women, breast cancer, did not affect America's First Ladies until sixty years ago. Former First Lady Bess Truman underwent a mastectomy in 1959 for a large breast lump. Fortunately it turned out to be an unusual benign tumor. Subsequently both Mrs. Betty Ford and Mrs....
Six women were married to future Presidents of the United States, but never became a First Lady. Five died before their husband entered the White House, and a sixth, Jane Wyman, divorced Ronald Reagan prior to his political career. The five wives who passed away were Martha Jefferson, Rachel Jackson, Hannah...
[caption id="attachment_309" align="alignleft" width="192"] Dolley Madison[/caption] Three future First Ladies brought children into their marriages with future Presidents of the United States. Two were widows and the other allegedly had borne a bastard son. The widows were Martha Washington, our first First Lady who was called Lady Washington and Dolley Madison,...
Eight Presidents and three First Ladies died during their presidential terms. Of all the presidential couples that departed the White House at the conclusion of their tenures, most, by far, former first ladies outlived their former presidential husbands. Only six women pre-deceased their spouses: Abigail Adams, Elizabeth Monroe, Abigail Fillmore,...
[caption id="attachment_281" align="alignleft" width="211"] Bess & Harry Truman[/caption] A recent post on this Facebook page noted that three living former First Ladies are well along in years: Nancy Reagan (91 years, 4 months); Barbara Bush (87 years, 8 months); Rosalynn Carter (85 years, 6 months). However three twentieth century First Ladies were...
Last night’s (January 27, 2013) episode of Downton Abbey presented in very graphic, but accurate, detail the death of Lady Sybil Crawley (Branson) from eclampsia, immediately after birth of her first child. Lady Sybil had the classic symptoms of eclampsia, the most serious form of toxemia of pregnancy: protein in...
[caption id="attachment_195" align="alignleft" width="192"] Julia Grant[/caption] Eleanor Roosevelt was a very prolific author, and recent presidential wives have put their biographies and reflection into print. Betty Ford wrote two autobiographies, interesting, dramatic and forceful. Rosalynn Carter and all her successors (Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush) have written...
As the nineteenth century became the twentieth, the two organized disciplines of American medicine, allopathy (orthodox medicine) and homeopathy formed an amicable alliance to discredit other medical sects - Christian science, naturopathy, hydrotherapy and osteopathy amongst others. In so doing, the distinctions between the two lessened and eventfully disappeared almost...
Future First Lady Eleanor Axson Wilson experienced three very difficult pregnancies during her first five years of marriage to Woodrow Wilson. All three pregnancies resulted in the birth of healthy daughters, but led to eventually fatal toxemia of pregnancy in the mother. First Lady Ellen Wilson died in the White...
Caroline Scott Harrison was the second of three American first ladies to die in the White House. She died in October 1892, a few short weeks before her husband's, Benjamin Harrison's, presidential re-election campaign, was decided. He lost. Caroline Harrison had been an active first lady until her respiratory illness. She...
Lucretia Garfield, the wife of the 20th president of the United States, James Garfield, was a consumer of homeopathic medicine. Her favored physician was female homeopath, Susan A. Edson. Edson, a graduate of the Homeopathic Hospital College in Cleveland, practiced in Northeast Ohio for several years before service in the...
Physicians trained according to the tenets of homeopathy treated future and sitting American First Ladies during the late 19th century and the early 20th century. Their husbands mostly took their medicine from orthodox physicians, those who followed the dicta of the American Medical Association. This and following posts will explain what...
There have been past occasions when medical matters affecting the First Lady have been 'leaked', or, illnesses, rightly considered to be confidential matters have been disclosed in press releases, and as a result, have become widespread public knowledge. On two occasions, these disclosures were due to politics. A need for...
Recently highly classified information about secret United States anti-terrorist activities has appeared in the New York Times. The sources of these leaks are controversial, but many, of both liberal and conservative bent, have pointed the finger towards the highest levels in the White House. The health and medical treatments of sitting...