While historically they have not received
the same amount of attention and press as their husbands, First
Ladies of the United States often continue to draw considerable
public interest even after leaving the White House. The following
offerings are facts and trivia related to American First Ladies.Martha Washington closed her
Mount Vernon bedroom after her husband died. She retired to a small
attic room situated across from her grandson in the large mansion.
Abigail Adams died of typhoid
in 1818.
Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson
played both the guitar and the piano. Historians give her the
credit for her idea to brew beer at Monticello.
Elizabeth Monroe was born in
1768. She was twenty-seven when she married James Monroe.
Born in 1775 and born as an American
citizen, Louisa Johnson Adams did not actually tread on U.S.
soil until 1801.
Dolley Madison was a Quaker
until she married James Madison in 1794. Her first husband and one
of their sons died of yellow fever.
Margaret Taylor, who was born
in 1788, was the daughter of a Revolutionary War major.
Elizabeth McCardle Johnson
is credited with teaching her husband (and the future President)
how to read.
After leaving office, Julia
and her husband Ulysses S. Grant were received by Queen Victoria
in England.
Frances Folsom was the youngest
first lady. She married Grover Cleveland in the White House (the
only White House Wedding) and delivered her first two children there
as well.
Frances Cleveland was one of
the most beloved First Ladies.
Mary Todd Lincoln hailed from
Lexington, Kentucky. Her son Robert had her placed in an insane
asylum in Illinois for three months during the subsequent years
after Abraham Lincoln's assassination.
Lou Henry met her future husband
Herbert in a Stanford geology laboratory.
Jacqueline Kennedy suffered
a broken leg from playing football with her husband's family.
Claudia Alta Taylor Johnson
had been nicknamed Lady Bird since she was a baby.
Bess Truman met her future
husband Harry in the fifth grade while attending school in Missouri.
Eleanor Roosevelt obtained
the title "First Lady of the World" from President Harry
Truman.
Betty Ford was born in Chicago,
Illinois in 1918. Her father died of carbon monoxide when she was
eleven years old. As the incident occurred in their garage, no one
knew whether it was an accident or suicide.
Rosalynn Carter's mother was
a dressmaker in Georgia.
Nancy Reagan studied theatre
at Massachusetts's Smith College.
Born in Chicago, Hilary Rodham
Clinton is the first woman to represent the state of New York
in the United States Senate.
Laura Bush worked as a librarian.-J. A. Young
