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Ida Saxton McKinley
Ida Saxton McKinley (June 8, 1847 – May 26, 1907), wife of William McKinley, was First Lady of the United States from 1897 to 1901.
She was born in Canton, Ohio. Her father was James A. Saxton, who was a famous banker. He educated Ida and their sister well. After their schooling, they went to Europe on a tour.
She started to work as a cashier in a bank. In 1867, Major William McKinley came to Canton to start his work as a lawyer. Ida and William McKinley came to know each other, and they fell in love. They married each other. While her husband devoted time to his work and career, Ida devoted time to her home and husband.
She had a daughter on the Christmas Day of 1871. They named their daughter Katherine. She bore a second daughter in April 1873. At that time Ida was very weak and ill. The second daughter dies in August. Their first daughter also died in 1876. By this time, Ida had become very weak and an invalid.
In the meanwhile, her husband has become a Congressman. He them became a governor of Ohio. He always paid his attention to his wife and cared for her. She spent most of her time in a small Victorian rocking chair. This chair was with her since her childhood.
When they entered the White House, Ida’s health was very weak. She took the role of the First Lady, but while seated in a blue velvet chair. She sat by the side of her husband during official dinners. The President kept a careful watch on her condition. At that time, very few people know of her bad physical condition. Only in recent years, people came to know of her bad physical condition.
Just after his second term as the President of the United States, an assassin shot William McKinley. McKinley at that time also remembered his wife’s weak condition. He told his secretary: “My wife…be careful, how you tell her; oh, be careful.”
After her husband’s death, Ida Saxton McKinley returned to Canton. Her younger sister cared for her. She visited her husband’s grave almost daily. She died in 1907. She lies buried by the side of her husband and their two daughters in Canton’s McKinley Memorial Mausoleum.
Edith Bolling Wilson
Edith White Bolling Galt Wilson (October 15, 1872 — December 28, 1961), second wife of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, was First Lady of the United States from 1915 to 1921. She met the President in March 1915 and they married nine months later.
Her husband had suffered a long illness. There were many things which the President was needed to do which he could not do. She helped him. Because of this, some people had called her "the Secret President" and "the first woman to run the government".
Wilson was born in Wytheville, Virginia. Her parents were Sallie White and Judge William Holcombe Bolling. She was their seventh child, out of the total eleven children. Through her grandmother, she was a direct descendant of Pocahontas.
When she was 15 years old, she attended Martha Washington College to study music. She attended the second year at a smaller school in Richmond, Virginia.
Once when she was visiting her married sister in Washington, DC, Edith met Norman Galt. Norman Galt was a rich jeweler. She married him in 1896. For 12 years, she lived a good life in Washington D. C. But, she also faced some tragedies. In 1903, she gave birth to a son. The child only lived for a few days. The problem birth made her unable to have any more children. In 1908, her husband died. Edith Galt picked a manager to run the family’s jewelry business. The business continued to earn money.
In 1915, President Wilson and Edith Galt met each other. President Wilson liked her and asked her to marry him. They married on 18th December 1915. While asking her to marry him, President Wilson had said like a poet: "in this place time is not measured by weeks, or months, or years, but by deep human experiences..."
Their love and romance also created a lot of talks in the social circle. Once an article in a Washington newspaper was about the Wilson couple. It talked of the couple while they were seeing a play in a theater before their marriage. The article stated: "The President gave himself up for the time being to "entertaining" his fiancee" But a printing error made it read like this: "The President gave himself up for the time being to "entering" his fiancee." The publishers called back the newspapers with the printing error. Still a few copies could not be called back. These copies are now very wanted items.
Mrs. Wilson had all the qualifications to act as the First Lady. She began her role as the First lady. During this time, World War I started. This limited the social activities at the White House. In 1917, the United States also joined the war. Mrs. Wilson started helping her husband who was under a lot of pressure because of the war. She also went with him to Europe during the process of peace.
President Wilson returned from Europe. He spent much of his time trying to get the Senate’s approval for the peace treaty. He was also trying to get approval for an agreement to create the League of Nations. In the meantime, his health was getting bad.
In September 1919, he suffered a stroke. He became partially paralyzed. Edith Wilson always stayed with him. She took over many common duties of the government and helped her husband in many official matters. At the same time, she sent many other official matters to the heads of departments or allowed them to remain undone.
She also wrote a book. The name of the book is "My Memoir". Its year of publication is 1939. In this book, she said that her husband’s doctors had asked her to take up many responsibilities of her husband. Many historians do not agree with her views.
Phyllis Levin, a historian had described her as "a woman of narrow views and formidable determination". He blamed her for many failures of the policies of the United States after the First World War.
In 1921, the Wilson couple retired to live in Washington. After three years her husband, Woodrow Wilson, died. She continued to live in Washington. People liked her, and she became a respected figure in the high society of the capital. Some people say that she liked and admired younger men. She lived a long life and lived to see President John F. Kennedy's inaugural parade. She died on December 28, 1961, the 105th anniversary of her second husband's birth. At the time of her death, she was 89 years. This made her the seventh longest-lived First Lady after Bess Truman, Nancy Reagan, Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, Barbara Bush and Rosalynn Carter, respectively.
Florence Harding
Florence "Flossie" Mabel Kling Harding, previously DeWolfe (August 15, 1860 – November 21, 1924), wife of President Warren G. Harding, was the First Lady of the United States from 1921 to 1923.
Her birthplace is Marion, Ohio. Her birth name was Florence (Flossie) Mabel Kling. Her father’s name was Amos Kling. He was a rich and successful businessman. She was of German descent and French Huguenot ancestry. She did a course in music.
When she was 19 years old, she ran away from her home along with her childhood friend named Henry De Wolfe. No document is available to prove their legal marriage. But, the “common law” of Ohio covered such marriages. De Wolfe turned out to be a heavy drinker and he spent a lot of money. Florence bore a son to him. The son’s name was Marshall Eugene De Wolfe, also known as Marshall Eugene Kling. Soon after the birth of her son, she divorced De Wolfe in 1886. She returned to Marion, and started living there. She also started using her maiden name, that is, the name before her marriage. De Wolfe died when he was 35 years old.