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Bio
Barbara Bush
Rarely had a first lady been greeted by the American people and the press with the approbation and warmth accorded to Barbara Pierce Bush. Perhaps this was prompted by the image she called "everybody's grandmother." People were comfortable with her white hair, her warm, relaxed manner, and her keen wit. With characteristic directness, she said people liked her because they
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Bio
Laura Bush
From the moment her mother introduced her to the wonders inside the Midland (Texas) County Library, Laura Bush developed a passion for reading and a love of literature that heavily influenced her life. “Little did I know,” she recalled, “that my mother was paving the way for my success in school, while teaching me the value of a good education.” As an on
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Bio
Betty Ford
Elizabeth “Betty” Bloomer was born on April 8, 1918, in Chicago, Illinois, and spent most of her childhood in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She was raised by her parents William and Hortense Bloomer. As a young girl, Betty took up dancing, which quickly became her passion. After graduating from high school, she moved to Vermont to attend the Bennington School of Dance and soon
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Bio
Elizabeth Truman
Elizabeth Wallace, better known as Bess, was born to David and Madge Wallace on February 13, 1885, in Independence, Missouri.1 Bess was a bright young woman who excelled in sports. After graduating from Independence High School, she attended finishing school at the Barstow School in Kansas City.2 At the age of five, she met Harry S. Truman at Sunday school at the
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Bio
Dolley Madison
Dolley Payne was born on May 20, 1768, the third of Mary Coles and John Payne Jr.’s nine children.1 Dolley was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, where her parents briefly moved to establish a Quaker community before returning to Virginia. Although John Payne owned enslaved people during Dolley’s early childhood, he freed them in 1783. It is unknown where Dolley was
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Bio
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born on October 11, 1884, in New York City. She was the oldest child of Elliot Roosevelt and Anna Hall. She lost both parents by the age of ten.1 Following the death of her mother, she was raised by her maternal grandmother, Mary Hall, and later attended a private London finishing school called Allenswood Academy. In 1902, Eleanor returned
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Bio
Grace Coolidge
Grace Anna Goodhue was born on January 3, 1879, in Burlington, Vermont. She was the only child of Andrew and Lemira Goodhue. Following her graduation from Burlington High School in 1897, Grace attended the University of Vermont, and joined the women’s fraternity Pi Beta Phi. Following her graduation in 1902, Grace entered training at the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts. Sh
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Bio
Calvin Coolidge
At 2:30 on the morning of August 3, 1923, while visiting in Vermont, Calvin Coolidge received word that Warren G. Harding was dead and he was president. By the light of a kerosene lamp, his father, who was a notary public, administered the oath of office as Coolidge placed his hand on the family Bible. Coolidge was “distinguished for character more than for he
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Bio
Mary Lincoln
Mary Todd was born on December 13, 1818, in Lexington, Kentucky. She was the fourth of seven children born to Robert Smith Todd and Eliza Ann Parker Todd. Her mother Eliza died when Mary was six years old. Her father, a wealthy businessman and slave owner, remarried Elizabeth Humphreys in 1826. The following year, Mary began attending Ward’s Academy and at age fo
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Bio
Caroline Harrison
Caroline Scott was born in Oxford, Ohio, on October 1, 1832 to educator Mary Neal Scott and John Witherspoon Scott, a Presbyterian minister and president of Oxford Female Institute. Caroline, or “Carrie,” studied languages, music, and drawing at the institute, graduating in 1852.1 She also met Benjamin Harrison, a student at nearby Miami University, while in school. They later married on October 20, 1853.2 In 1854, the
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Bio
Benjamin Harrison
Nominated for president on the eighth ballot at the 1888 Republican convention, Benjamin Harrison conducted one of the first "front-porch" campaigns, delivering short speeches to delegates that visited him in Indianapolis. As he was only 5 feet, 6 inches tall, Democrats called him "Little Ben"; Republicans replied he was big enough to wear the hat of his grandfather, "Old Tippecanoe."Born on August 20, 1833
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Bio
Chester A. Arthur
Dignified, tall, and handsome, with clean-shaven chin and side-whiskers, Chester A. Arthur looked like a president.The son of a Baptist preacher who had emigrated from northern Ireland, Arthur was born on October 5, 1829 in Fairfield, Vermont. He graduated from Union College in 1848, taught school, was admitted to the bar, and practiced law in New York City. Early in the Civil