page_title: Lenore Romney
section_title: First Lady of Michigan
hierarchical_section_title: Lenore Romney / First Lady of Michigan
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. BM Stoltenberg empfängt den US Gouverneur, Romney [republikanischer Präsidentschaftskandidat]
context_page_description: Lenore LaFount Romney was an American actress and political figure. The wife of businessman and politician George W. Romney, she was First Lady of Michigan from 1963 to 1969. She was the Republican Party nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1970 from Michigan. Her youngest son, Mitt Romney, is a U.S. Senator from Utah, a former Governor of Massachusetts and was the 2012 Republican presidential nominee.
  Lenore LaFount was born in Logan, Utah, and raised in Salt Lake City. She went to Latter-day Saints High School, where she developed an interest in drama and first met George Romney. She attended the University of Utah and George Washington University, graduating from the latter in 1929. She studied acting at the American Laboratory Theatre in New York, then went to Hollywood where she became a bit player who appeared in a number of films with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Turning down a contract offer with them, she married George Romney in 1931. The couple had four children together; she was a stay-at-home mother, eventually living in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, while he became a success in business and politics.
context_section_description: When her husband decided to enter electoral politics by running for Governor of Michigan in 1962, Lenore Romney said she and the family supported him: "I know it will be difficult – not easy. But we're all dedicated with him for better government." She played a productive role in the 1962 campaign, making speeches before groups of Republican women at a time when it was unusual for women to campaign separately from their husbands. She was given the task of campaigning in the rural and small urban, Republican-leaning outstate areas while he focused on the Democratic-leaning Detroit area.
  Following George's victory in November 1962, Lenore became the state's First Lady. About her new role, she said her goal was to make "a real breakthrough in human relations by bringing people together as people – just like George has enunciated. Women have a very interesting role in this, and I don't expect to be a society leader holding a series of meaningless teas."
  She proved popular as a First Lady. She was a frequent speaker at events and before civic groups and became known for her eloquence. She was thus useful to his political career, just as she had been to his business one. Like her husband, she did not make public appearances on Sundays. He was re-elected in 1964 and 1966, and she campaigned frequently with him. Moreover, she played more of an active and partisan role within her party than any other Michigan first lady in the 20th century. She knew his policy positions at least as well as any of his official aides, went with him on almost all of his out-of-state trips, and gave his speeches for him if sudden events made him unable to attend. Over time an impression grew among some in the public that she was smarter than he was. George Romney biographer T. George Harris concluded in 1967 that "she has been considerably more than a first lady."
  Lenore was a traditionalist who decried the women's liberation movement as being one of "strident voices" and "burning bras and railing against male-chauvinistic pigs." She decried relaxed sexual mores and talk of a "New Morality", saying "the morality they discuss is the barnyard morality and it is as old as the hills." However, she was also an advocate for the involvement of women in business and politics. By 1966, she was telling audiences around the state, "Why should women have any less say than men about the great decisions facing our nation?" She added that women "represent a reservoir of public service which has hardly been tapped."
  She explicitly criticized the counterculture phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out", saying "What kind of a philosophy is that?" Instead she urged young people to "Think of something outside of yourselves. Have something in yourself that is greater than self." She told one high school audience, "You have the right to rebel, but make sure what you're rebelling for is greater than what you're rebelling against."
  She was a devout and faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who taught Sunday School lessons at her church for many years, including a stint during the early 1960s teaching 14-year-olds. Her views on many social issues were more liberal than most of the Republican Party, and she appeared on stage with Martin Luther King, Jr. at Michigan State University in March 1966. On the issue of the LDS Church policy of the time that did not allow black people in its lay clergy, she defended the church, saying, "If my church taught me anything other than that the Negro is equal to any other person, I could not accept it." She was a member of the Women's City Club in Detroit, but in 1967, said she would resign unless the club dropped a policy barring black guests from eating in its dining room.
  During her husband's 1968 presidential campaign, Lenore continued to exert a calming influence on him and helped keep his sometimes problematic temper in check. She was adept at campaigning, appearing at ease and speaking in a lively, fluent manner without notes before audiences of various types. The Associated Press wrote that she was probably "
caption: Lenore with her husband George (far left) and West Germany's Gerhard Stoltenberg (center) in 1967
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