First ladies library, lucinda fraley. [ applause ]. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you, everyone, who is involved with the symposium. You have absolutely no idea how thrilled my colleagues and i are all to be here. Any time we get a chance to present first ladies we always put forth our mission, which is to i cant think of our mission. You can tell im really good today. It is to educate public about the lives and the activities of the first ladies in this country. And believe me, they were all wonderful. And as i was talking to somebody last night at the reception, we think all the president s were quite intelligent, every one of them. Because they were smart enough to marry the woman who became their lifes partner and the first ladies of our country. We want you to be wowed. We want you to be wowed by the first ladies. And as we are every day. So i would like to introduce friends we know very well through the years. As i introduce each one in the order of Florence Harding, followed by Grace Coolidge, the representatives will give a brief biography of you how wonderful they really were. And i expect to hear an ooh and ahh from every one. A good friend of ours is is sherry holmes, site manager of the warren g. Harding president ial site. This is very unusual, and i thought about it last night, sherry. Sherry is a former journalist. Once a journalist, always a journalist. She worked with not only the marion star, owned by Warren Harding, but mrs. Harding worked there also. And in canton, ohio. Mckinleys grandfather gone that newspaper. So it is prophetic. It really is. Shes a lecturer and authored and authored the book warren g. Harding and the morningstar. Would you please introduce mrs. Harding. I would be happy to. Our 29th president , warren g. Harding was a native of marion, ohio, right where we are today. Born in 1860, she and her two younger brothers were under the strict rule of their father. An industry jauss and selfmade businessman, it was marions richest man but won no words for compassion. He attended the cincinnati music and shocked her parents eloped at the age of 19 literally with the boy next door. The marriage produced a son, marshall, before imploding in divorce. In 1891, 30yearold florence married 25yearold Warren Harding, editor of the marion daily star. The two had met at a local dance. Florence embraced newspapering as the Family Business and quickly jumped in to revamp the circulation department. She was not a woman to make housekeeping and cooking her lifes focus. For whatever reason, the hardings did not have children of their own. Florence developed Kidney Disease at age 40. And i mention this because this life ht threatening malady seriously impacted her quality of life and her philosophy of how to live her life. As her husband stayed in normal politics, she was warrens most enthusiastic supporter and sounding board. The harding center, the white house march of 1921, following the presidency of woodrow wilson, they spent just 29 months there. Before his first term was over, president harding died of a heart attack and congestive hard failure. Florence died 15 months later. She died of Kidney Disease and Heart Failure in november of 1924. She was 64 years old. Cynthia bittinger, the former executive director of the Calvin Coolidge memorial foundation. She is a lecturer and author, as well as we found out a commentator. And you have a column of your own now and then that keeps you very active. Cindy has authored the book grace cool, sudden star and native americans and africanamericans out of the shadows of history. Cynthia, will you please introduce grace. Grace was born january 3rd, 1879 in burlington, vermont. One of vermonts larger cities. You probably know vermont doesnt have very many large cities. She was an only child. And since she was an only child, her very middleclass parents could afford to send her to the university of vermont for her education. As she graduated in 1902 and immediately set out for North Hampton, massachusetts to begin to teach deaf children in the aural method, which is a tough way of teaching. She taught at the clark school for the deaf until her marriage to a lawyer. Her mother wanted her to stay in burlington so she could find a nice doctor for her. But she was going home to Smith College where there werent many men. But she found the one man. They stayed at home raising two sons where her husband commuted to the ledge shaper. When calvin was tapped to run for Vice President and won, they relocated to the Willard Hotel in washington, d. C. And i think well hear through our discussion today what happened at the white house next. Thank you. Annette dunlap, another dear friend of hours, historian lecturer, and author. Her book, one of my favorites near and dear to our heart, americas youngest first lady. And shes also written a book very personal to her, a personal and social history. The busy miss dunlap here, miss dunlap has a few books to come out very soon. 2016 its charles g. Dawes. The other in 2017 that i cant wait to get my hands on. Ill be so busy reading your books is lewis comfort tiffany and the business of art. And lou hoover im sorry. I got the right title today. Shes working on lou hoovers buy agrees entitled, get this, a woman among women. Yes. Would you please introduce mrs. Hoover. Thank you, cindy. Lou henry, no middle name. Not short for louise was born march 29th, 1874 in waterloo, iowa. Her parents were charles and florence henry. And, yes, daddy wanted a boy. And so mama allowed her eldest daughter to be named. Name lou. We all think thats modern. And in many ways lou was raised as a boy. She was taught to hunt, shoot, fish, and ride a horse. But her mother also made sure she learned how to sew, cook, and keep house. And the fact that she was brought up with those twin threads from both of her parents contributed to the unique women she eventually did become. When she was 11, her father took a banking job in whittier, california. They moved there in 1885. And lou pretty much considered whittier to be her home. She entered Normal School that is a teacher college. It is now today ucla. When her family moved to monterey, she transferred to santa fe for a threeyear degree. She wanted to teach the upper grades because of her love of science. And because she was so young and a woman she could not find a position in that field. She was attending lectures that were available there in the monterey area by the recently opened stanford university. She heard a series of lecture on matters related to geology. Stanford, when it was opened, was coeducational and was one of the first private universities founded in this country that was not affiliated with a religious institution. It was also completely tuition free. And so lou wrote to dr. Branner and asked if it would be possible if she as a woman could come to study geology. She was knitted at stanford and became the first woman to receive a bachelors degree in geology from that university. It was there that she met Herbert Clark hoover, whom she is actually older than. But because she had had her previous teachers education she was obviously a freshman when he was a senior. The courtship eventually developed. Burt, as he was known to friends and family, graduated and left for australia, where he found a position in mining. And the two of them continued their correspondence and lou eventually agreed to marry him. She wrote a letter saying here i am trying desperately to find you a job and yet you decided to leave us. And he signed it lovingly your professorinlaw. The hoovers were married february 10th, 1899 and left the very next day for china. Where burt had a mining job. Over the next several years the couple traveled all over the world, lived in many different places. Lou went into the mines with burk. She was what we see so often of women with professional men with the same educational back ground. She was the unpaid employee for these mining companies. They lived in london for a number of years. Lou was instrumental in helping when world war i broke out, which we will get to later. She have involved with Many Organizations here until they eventually came to the white house. Thank you. These ladies were outstanding at a time when really women werent supposed to succeed on that level and they did. The first question i would like to pose to the lady of the day, mrs. Harding, since this is the harding symposium. But its also very important. Abigail adams, if we can go back to her for a second, she wrote to her husband when he was in philadelphia. Remember the ladies. We have all heard this. However, she was angry with john because he didnt remember the ladies. Make sure you make us part of the laws of this new nation. Because we dont have rights like to an education really. We dont have rights to our own property. Lady washington abigail didnt say this but to give you an idea. Washington inherited an inheritance when her husband first died. But she needed to get married because it had to be in the hands of a woman because a woman couldnt have it. This is the way it was, women. When he called her, oh, you are so saucy, she wasnt too happy. Many years later, another first lady, Florence Harding, who is the very first first lady who cast her ballot to vote for her own husband as president of the united states. Yes. 19th amendment had passed. And is cynthia, were going to follow with you because they were on the same ticket. Yes. Harding and then of course mrs. You have to forgive us. Its not about the president s. Its always about the ladies. She was the Vice President s wife but she was going to succeed mrs. Harding into the white house. So can you please talk about the campaign a little bit and how at a time when women were not supposed to be out in front, and they werent, mrs. Harding, was it true that she rather knew women would kind of be instrume instrumental in putting her husband in the white house . Is that safe to say . I think it is safe to say. To make a note, all three of these women were tied in the same administration. Mrs. Hoover, of course the wife of Herbert Hoover, he is the setting of commerce in the Harding Administration. So is all three knew each other and were linked in the Harding Administration. Mrs. Harding of course is reluctantly put in the place of campaigning for her husband, so she says. Okay. She is not enthused about him running for president at first. Once he decides to throw his hat in the ring, shes in 110 . And she really demonstrated that through the campaign. She was comfortable with the press. Because she considered herself to be a newspaper woman. She wasnt a writer for the newspaper as her husband was, but she knew all the newspaper editors. She knew the reporters at a lot of different newspapers. She absolutely thought it was her business as much as her husbands. She knew all the lingo and slang of the newsroom. So she could talk very easily with the press. By 1920, you really had the press stepping up. And we hadnewsreel footage, newspaper reporters all working out of the press house, built especially for the house at the rear of the harding home. So she had to be comfortable with the press or suffer through a long threemonth campaign. Wouldnt we like to have that today, a threemonth president ial campaign. Good point. So she gave interviews. But she didnt call them interviews. She chatted, she said, with the newspaper reporters. Things she didnt want to be quoted. But knowing all the time she would be. And that was okay because she knew how to play the game. It would have been unseemly if she had gone out in front and called her own news conference. That would have been undermining her husband. So she goes around the back door a little bit and says, well, sure, ill chat with you. With her knitting in her lap. Florence harding knew how to play the game. She was not someone who would knit or embroider in real life. But she could do it. She could play the game. On the other times she could play up other parts of her life. Like all of this women are complicated, multilayered woman. And she could talk the business game. She said i love working women because i did it. She knew what that felt like. During the time between her two marriages with her young sons she did try to support herself by giving piano lessons. And it didnt work very well. She knew about that loneliness. She knew about that heavy responsibility. She could identify with those women and they could identify with her. And with this whole new contingent of voters, the women voters in 1920, she filled this very vital role very adequately in relating to those women voters and bringing them into the game. She thought it was important for them to know about politics and government. So shes right there front and center. Thank you. Cynthia, grace was a very different kind, very different, opposite in the way of mrs. Harding what was her role, if any . Grace coolidge stayed home, as i stated, when calvin went to the legislature. There was no Governors Mansion in boston. So even though frank watermansterns said ill buy you a brownstone. Ill put in 32 serveants. Ill set you all up. Cant you come to boston. And grace will be released to entertain and help you with your role as governor. And Calvin Coolidge said, no, thats beyond our means and we will not do that. When it comes to the vice presidency, she did not campaign again. She stayed home. And calvin did a little campaigning since the hardings were on their front porch pretty much, right . Right. And then when it came to calvin running in his own right, their son had just died. And ill be telling you about that a little bit later. So there wasnt a whole lot of campaigning. But thomas edison, harvey firestone, and henry ford all came to visit plymouth, vermont. I dont know how many of you have been to plymouth, vermont. Its a very small town. They talked and Grace Coolidge was right there talking with these folks and talking about politics. So she seems to have come into her own a little bit in this time period. And then when they did win and went back to the white house, she had a little bit more of a role. But in terms of campaigning, i would say this. William allen wright said when looking at the campaign, one flag, one country, one conscience, and never more than three words will do calvin all of his life. And then the Washington Post article about the Campaign Said mrs. Coolidges Million Dollar smile is the greatest political asset. Absolutely. There you go. We would agree with that. And annette, correct me if im wrong, but of the panelists here, the hoovers were not political. They did not have a political background. Is that truthful to say . But yet these brilliant people both running for president. Well, the interesting thing is that hoover did attempt to run for the president in 1920. And there was a campaign biography that was written, if my memory serves me correctly, by vernon kellogg, and hoover oversaw the writing and editing of that bio. So then when the selection of harding was made, being good republicans and loyal to the party, the hoovers obviously stepped back and supported harding. But hoovers loyalty was rewarded because he was named secretary of commerce in the Harding Administration and actually held that position through both the harding and the coolidge administration. Their politics was of the covert type. Instead of the overt type. So they were working the relationships and the connections behind the scenes. So once coolidge announced he was not going to run, burt rose to the top pretty quickly as the top candidate. And once the nomination was secured, as i had already mentioned, this is a very welltraveled couple and well traveling. So they hopped a train. And many times it would stop. And burt and lou would come out the back and wave to people. And lou would say a few words. Burt would give his speech and go on. She functioned in the role as an adviser monitoring what the press was saying about him. Kind of keeping the two suns abreast of what was going on. So she was active and likely more active than her two immediate predecessors. And i would just piggy back on what we have said about Florence Harding being the first first lady to be able to cast a vote. We have to realize were just now to the third election where women are given the opportunity to vote. And were just beginning to see changes in the role that women are playing in candidate selection and being delegates to the national conventions. So theres a lot going on under the radar that we sort of need to keep in mind when we look at the political involvement of these women. Is so they are are paving the money. Very much. Okay, ladies, we have to talk about it. Passion. Lets just link it right now to the campaign. Because actually and truthfully lets be honest, the First Impression sometimes we get of the were candidates wife is at the convention. Or on the campaign trail. It sort of sets the tone for the white house years. Mrs. Kennedy once said in private that it was referred to her gorgeous ensembles as her state clothes. She was much more casual in private life than anyone ever realized. These ladies had to have the same sort of thing. How important was it . I think were going to start with cynthia. Because theres coolidge when she was younger, 40 some years old, a fashion plate. Just a beautiful woman. And was a wonderful kind of like Dolly Madison or james madison, who was quite retiring. She was the foil. And you have already alluded to that, for calvin. Yes. How much did that physiology play into her . Well, the fashions of the day were quite something. This is the roaring 20s, folks. And we have flappers and shorter skirts and your arms showing. Were all hearing about Michelle Obama letting her arms show. But grace did a little of that. But she still had to keep some decorum because her husband was very concerned i dont mean to interrupt. But her official portrait was sleeveless. Thats right. And ive just been back to plymouth, vermont and looked at some of her gowns and some of her purses and so on. And i did know from reading her letters made her own dresses at the white house. She made her own things. But calvin didnt like this. He said theyre too frumpy. You have to look better than this, grace. And as grace said, i think its half the secret of a happy married life, dressing to suit ones husband. So she did want to look good. And mary randolph, her social secretary, said i have never known anyone more interested in his wifes clothes than mr. Coolidge. And the more elaborate the better he liked it. I have seen magnificent gowns. One was all gold filigree. They were ordered from garfinkels and stearns. She had a beautiful coat. On the back is a peacock in gold and blue all the way down the back. These are very, very nice. But she didnt worry too much about her clothing. But since she didnt give her views, they took a lot of pictures for her. She was happy to pose. Thats how the nation knew a lot about her. And calvin wanted her to wear Something Different every day. I dont know how they could do that. You he said thats where were going to spend our money, grace. I like that kind of guy. Okay, annette. Well, fortunately, or unfortunately, this photograph of lou in her girl scout uniform there is a quote by someone unattributed that said this is the only way he has ever remembered lou henry hoover. And that is she always wore her girl scout uniform. And thats fortunate in one respect because it was great promotion for the girl scouts. Not so great because she was quite a fashion plate. If any of you, particularly you women have ever noticed vogue magazine you will notice there is always a cover of a first lady at least in all of our lifetimes. The first lady to be photographed for vogue magazine was lou henry hoover. By the very famous and wellknown frank steigen. So she was actually quite fashion conscious. She designed a lot of her own clothing. She loved color. She loved florals. She loved chiffon fabrics. There are gorgeous gowns in storage at the Hoover Library with Gold Metallic and Silver Metallic woven into brocades and expensive fabric. And i contacted a fashion historian and asked about that. And she said these were highly fashionable garments and designs at the time. Lou word a lot of velvet and brocades for state dinners. But when the price of cotton dropped in 1931, she ordered a gown of calico, which is cotton, made for a state dinner for the officials from the department of agriculture and the department of labor in february of 1932, do her best to try to promote the cotton industry. And she was roundly criticized by the Society Editors for not wearing either velvet or satin. Criticism even then. Yes. And mrs. Harding. Florence comes into the white house at age 62. Shes well aware that shes a lot older than grace. And she dresses what is described as very appropriate for her age. She wears a lot of grades, a lot of lilacs. She likes clothes. And when she was when warren was in the senate, she spent quite a bit of money on clothes. But when she entered the white house, shes got a contradiction here. She still knows she needs to address like a first lady. And she says, even in letters to her daughterinlaw, that the public expects her to change her clothes several times during the day. But she would get criticism, she knows, if she had the same thing on in the morning as a function late in the afternoon. So she has to have this wardrobe. By this time, though, in the white house, her Kidney Disease makes it hard for her to change clothes several times a day. Physically difficult for her. So clothes dont have as much meaning for her in the white house as they did in the senate years. She was asked by a woman journalist, whom she liked to give preference to, whats your opinion on the length of skirts . Because of course they were creeping up. She want to know specifically what would you tell these young girls across the country who have skirts almost up to their knees . And she said, im not going to even utter a comment about that. Its up to their mothers. Which i thought was pretty smart. Her skirt lengths tended to be just a few inches above the tops of her shoes. Because she is mindful of her age. And shes got swollen ankles because of her Kidney Disease. Now, goes into the white house, theres all this fuss made about the harding blue. She has a gown made of harding blue. Theres all this description about how its not quite a royal blue. We have had this discussion with the first ladies. What shade of blue was it . Well, its in between electric blue you and i dont know. There was also a marion blue, which is a navy. There is also a Florence Harding lavender. And clothes were being made in these colors. Grace coolidge, during the same time period when theyre going into office she had a veil designed, the Grace Coolidge veil in navy blue. Florence had a veil in black. So you could dress like your favorite first lady or Vice President ial wife i guess. A big fuss is made about this. But shes going to cover her arms usually. Again, mindful of her age. Shes going to address appropriately. She gets a little bit of criticism about being a tad on the frumpy side. But by and large, women across america think shes dressed just fine. It was liked. It was very popular. Very popular. Ladies, im going to kind of combine these next few. And ill tell you where we are in it. I want to make sure we get in every question. You can take this anywhere you want to go. But this has to do with the press, the relationship with the press, the public and private persona of each. And how each coped that way, which kind of goes into their partnership somewhat with their husbands on how they supported them in policies, with how did World Politics or how did world events shape what happened. And annette, i would like to start with you. Because we were talk building this. Yeah. I mean lou hoover is just mind blowing when you figure really. Im not kidding. This is a woman who spoke mandarin chinese. Rebel yon. She had no fear. The chinese were hiding out in a little commune where they were staying. Lou is going out and getting supplies and her tires is being riddled by bullets on her bicycle as she rides. And she writes a friend and said you missed all the excitement. You should have been here. She has traveled country to country. She is an organizer in london. You mentioned this. If anybody should have a succeeded it should have been the selfmade couple. They were wealthy and generous to a fault. Here we have the press going along with how they are using the press or the press is not being used, how the public is seeing them, not seeing them. And world events. Or maybe Something Else interfere and changing the road that the couples took. Can you start that off . I know thats a lot to go on. But its kind of tied in. So the hoovers inherited an extremely booming economy, which well hear about when we talk about florence and grace. So the roaring 20s were also a time of enormous prosperity. And when Herbert Hoover comes into office in 1929, march of 1929, part of what he says in his inaugural speech is he has great optimism for the country. Theres no hint at least in the over horizon that waters underneath may be a little bit troubled. So there was a bit of a stock market crash october 23rd or 24th. And its giving an inkling theres going to be some problems. And black tuesday, october 29th, 1929 hits. And the stock market tanks. And you have to understand that a after coming out of these years of tremendous prosperity, it is really difficult at first to determine whether or not this is just a blip on the economic radar screen or if this is the beginning of a problem. And of course as we know, because we have the benefit of 2020 hindsight, it was the beginning of a very severe problem. And so as you move into 1930, it becomes very clear that the economy is in very dire straits with a depression that probably hadnt been experienced in most of the lifetimes of those people. Probably the last time a there had been a depression of that severity would have been during the benjamin harrison, Grover Cleveland years before mckinley took office. So the white house is scrambling on how they are going to deal with this. And hoover is dealing with a very uncooperative congress. There are several Different Reasons for that lack of cooperation. Hes trying to get them to pass ava right of relief measures. Hoover was not a republican in the sense of we think of many republicans today whereas you want to reduce the amount of government involvement in whats going on. Hoover was very much someone who said find ways deposit can be beneficial and facilitate that. He had a lot of enemies in congress for a lot of Different Reasons. And there was not that support. He formed what was called the president s Emergency Committee for employment, which got this act name pece or peace. If any of you ever read the story i cant forget it now. Its about the dozen children. Some of you may remember that. Cheaper by the dozen. Lillian was the mother of that dozen. And she was an engineer. And a close friend of lous. And lou recruited lillian to come help on this pece committee to try to find employment for women. Lou used her relationship with the girl scouts because she had been National President of the girl scouts. She got on the radio and encouraged girl scouts to look for ways 20 help and volunteer in the communities. Lou used the radio to encourage volunteerism amongst communities for people to help one another and support one another during this difficult time. And what is lesser known about her and really wasnt known until after her papers became opened, she was privately supporting people who would come to her attention. As my colleagues up here are well aware from looking at the correspondence, every single first lady gets letters asking for various forms of assistance in one way or the other. And lou was no exception. And she had enough of a radar to be able to figure out what was legitimate and what needed to be passed on to a staff member to handle. But she got a ticking interesting letter she thought had some merit. She had a network of people all across the country. She would pass that letter to someone in that geographic al area. She basically asked, would you look this person up and do it anonymously. Is this legitimate . What are the needs of this individual . How could it be helped. Lou was sending money to ava right of people across the country anonymously, through these conduits to give support, including a lot of africanamerican women, to help them fund college educations. And much of this about lou did not come into the public arena until after her papers were opened up in 1984. To get to the press question thats really the downfall of both hoovers. Their press secretary begged both of them to go public with many of their private philanthropic acts. Because burt had been an orphan. And he would periodically invite children to the white house and just let his hair down, so to speak, and play ball with them, entertain them, allow them to have meals and enjoy themselves in the white house. And he wasnt doing it as the president. He was doing it as a little orphaned boy who is now in a position to be able to assist with that. Particularly when the 1982 campaign started to get really heated, there was just pressure on the part of their press secretary. Let us do some photographs. Hold some press conferences. Let people see this human side of you because people perceive you as being stiff and stuck up and rich and not caring. And this press secretary knew the whole other side. And both of them said know. He was raised a quaker. He had taken on a lot of teaching of modesty. They said, no, were not doing this for press. We are doing it because its the right thing. We dont want to exploit the people we have given assistance to. So in the end their decision not to play to the demands of the press played a significant role in the publics perception and thus their loss in the election in 1932. Thank you. Can we work backwards. Of course were coming into a little bit better time now. Grace coolidge. Basically, when the coolidges came to the white house, Warren Harding had just died. Right. So there was a period of mourning for 90 days. There was Great Respect for president harding and being here today and seeing the wreath delivered to the memorial, i understand that this area especially revered president harding. Remember, this is an inner wartime period, between world war i and world war ii. So they were cutting back on the budget, scaling back the navy. It was not a time to engage the world. There was isolationism. Thats the watch word. Grace carried on florences devotion to the veterans and having musicals with them as guests and visiting walter reid hospital, the veterans there. She wanted to highlight american music. But i notice she had been on and off to the white house four times. So she followed florences lead on having wonderful music at the white house. But many say the coolidges didnt really fit with the time. She and her husband were thrifty in an age of excess, quiet in a period of verbosity. That gave stability to the nation. When the flood of 1927 came, it did devastate vermont. And she and her husband toured the state afterward. They waved at people. Their train stopped many times. One time Calvin Coolidge said vermont this is a state i love. Thats where he got his bride grace. Born in burlington. And grace turned to the newspaper men and said, did you get that . That was really good. And she was right. She also devoted herself to deaf children. She hosted helen keller at the white house. She and her husband have the thrill of reading charles linworth when he came back from europe. Calvin sent a destroyer to pick him up. I thought that was wonderful. And the coolidges had introduced the morrows and the lindbergs. We know what came out of that was a marriage. And they were e very happy about that. In terms of the press, grace did not try to cultivate press relations. She did say to the press, leave my boys alone. The children of the first family, and we have seen that continually, should be left alone. But she was happy to pose at 12 00 noon on the steps, take questions, and pose with people who wanted to visit her. She said she was the national hugger. She wanted to hug everybody. Just as calvin would say jokes and be remote, she wanted to be the warm one. Her radiance came across. And i think the nation did appreciate that. And what about the press lady herself . I think we have to start with the time period that the hardings arrived at the white house. World war i, still very fresh in everybodys mind. Nearly effect in the Harding Administration relateds to that as far as policy and everything that they are doing is is some kind of reaction to the experience of the soldiers or the women in this country during the war. And think of the wilson administration, particularly at the end, when the public of course didnt know how ill he was. But the white house is silent during the last couple of years in the administration. The gates are closed. There is no entertaining. A lot of that is due to wartime and its also because of the president s health. One of the things i think florence was most proud of, and she said this very early after the election, even to Close Friends, was i really want to open the gates to the white house as soon as i get there. Its time for the people to be allowed back in. And she belonged that fervently, as did warren too, that it was the peoples house. And the president s first order of business was issuing that proclamation that, yes, the gates are to be open and people can come on the lawn. A lot of the white house staff thought that was really out of line. They said the blinds are open. And florence said, let them look in. Its their house. She had the marine corps. Band play concerts every saturday afternoon. As a member of the public, you could just come on the grounds and spread a blanket and listen to them. She thought that was her job. As first lady, coming out of that war experience, out of the wilson years was that was her way of bringing back normalcy. To the country. Warren is working on the policies to restore normalcy. Florence is bringing back that normalcy to the american people. And that meant bringing life back to the white house. She immediately has 60 vases of flowers filled every day. Flowers is her communication device. Theres no cell phones then. She uses a bouquet of flowers. And she used the white house greenhouses more than anybody had to this point at least. And because of her love for flowers, she says, well, thats the way to bring color in the white house. Thats a way for me to express my care for you. Sent you a box of flowers, and she did to just ordinary people. Sometimes people, as cindy was saying and annette too, who would write to her with their problems. Sometimes there would be a messenger bringing a box of white house flowers to the door. And the whole neighborhood would say, wait a minute, you got something from the white house. Because she knew that would make someone feel special. And she did that quite a bit. More than anybody realized. And as far as the press, she was an opendoor policy really. She, you know, she was in some ways more open than the public than she was in revealing her own life, her private life. And, again, she thought this was her duty to do this. She would often, when the public was taking a tour of the rooms in the first floor of the white house, she would come down the stairs to the shock of everybody and say, ill guide you through. How thrilled these people were when that happened. And of course her famous handshaking. When she and the president would stand in line sometimes for hours shaking hands. She would have her gloves on. But sometimes her hand would become so swollen she would say forgive me, im going to shake with my left hand and have to switch out gloves because her hands were so swollen they would cut the gloves off and put new gloves on her. This is a woman with Kidney Disease who shouldnt be standing on her feet for that long anyway. She said i dont want to disappoint anybody. Im going to stand in line until the last person comes through line. It is not a token gesture. Ill put in my five minutes appearance and then get out of here. She will stay until that last person comes through. She is not just going to shake your hands. Shes going to Say Something meaningful. How are you . Whats meaningful in your life . And she waits for you to respond. So she really understands, and this is very much genuine Florence Harding. The president had that very outgoing personality where what you saw was what you got. And but florence often is giving the aloof. That shes rather shrewish. Shes not. Shes just different from her husband, but she engages with people in different ways. Ive always thought she was fabulous. From what ive read about her me, too. I want to combine two more. I want to make sure we get everything in we need to get in before we go to questions, which i hope you have. I know were wowing you with these ladies, and we should be. If were not, we have to step it up, ladies. Weve been talking here. There are stresses involved, certainly, in being the walking out of normal life into an extraordinary position. We are normal americans, as were these ladies. The stress level has to be terrible. I want to go to how they relieved their stress, but also if you would preface it with, so we can lighten it up a little. We know some of them had pets. Some loved sports. We talked about florence and her music. She adored it, as did all three. Is it true that mrs. Hoover played the piano in the private quarters . Is that a true thing . I read that. I dont remember, but she was definitely a lover of music. To your reason, there was a gentleman who worked with, i believe, steinway company, who was responsible, had insinuated himself into the various administrations of the white house, to secure the performers for white house social events. Thats likely why rock mononoff was there four times. Lou had definite ideas of who she wanted, and she wanted american musicians. He was not always willing to promote american musicians, and would write her letters explaining why that particular person she wanted wasnt of the same caliber as, perhaps, the not americanborn person he was attempting to promote. That had to be stress for her. Several. One of the visitors of the white house was there said, he looks like a convict, but he plays like an angel. Well, you can lighten it up with all these other things that certainly they used for stress relievers. I want to go to each of them did have, on the public stage, tragedy in their lives. Yes. On the public stage. Awful for them. I will let any one of you start that sad affair that wants to take it on first. Then go right to the stress reli relief, if you will. Ill take it on because its happened so rarely in white house history, the loss of your child. C calvin and grace had this happen to them during their time at the white house. John and kevin jr. Played tennis, and they loved tennis, with the assistant white house physician, and i think a person from the secret service. After that, young calvin, who hadnt been wearing socks, had a blister. He didnt tell anybody about it. It seemed to move into an infection. By the time the white house physician saw him, it was too late. And already, the infection had moved up his leg. So within just a few days, calvin jr. Dies at the white house. Both the parents were absolutely devastated, and so was his brother. I interviewed the brother because john coolidge, the surviving son, live ed quite a long time, into his 90s, and i was able to talk to him about this. The whole family was extremely upset. Grace coolidge carried this off with great decorum. She reminds me of Jackie Kennedys solid behavior after the assassination of her husband, even though that was radically different. Grace coolidge and her husband have people come to the white house if they wish to express their condolences. Then we have a service in North Hampton, and then the 16yearold is buried in plymouth, vermont. Grace had to move on because the campaign was coming. With her faith, she was very religious, and with her joy in life, she carries on. I really think the president , Calvin Coolidge, could not have carried on without this very strong woman by his side. Its very important to note the role of a first lady when Tragedy Strikes of this nature. Is this when her interest in baseball really began . She starts her interest in baseball. Florence liked baseball, too. Yes. She did enjoy her baseball. She listened on the radio. She had her own real booth at the when the senators played in washington and when she eventually went to boston and was with the red sox. Some people called her the first lady of baseball because of her interest in it, and also how much the players adored her. We see behind you, she has rob roy with her. She dressed her dogs up in easter bonnets and things, didnt she . More than that. She and her husband had many pets. They were given a raccoon for thanksgiving dinner. They did not wish to eat rebecca, so they trained her for life at the white house. This is the only time i read in my studies about how the staff was not happy. Rebecca crawled the curtains. Rebecca jumped in the tub and threw the soap out. Rebecca was difficult, and they got ruben to stay with her, another raccoon. That was worse. Then grace sits down and draws an outside house for them to live in. They set that all up, but that did you want work either. Eventually, rebecca has to be given to a zoo. That was so cute because rebecca was brought to the easter egg rolling, and the children got to see her, and then grace would take the dogs and make little easter bonnets for them. Yes, they did love the pets. I think for the president , it was real relaxation. We talked about that. Sherry, can we go to the loss of a husband . First ladies left without the man she loves. Id like to start id like to flip it, if thats okay, and start with the relaxation part. Then well pull the bottom out. Florence had a lot of different interests. The music, she played the piano beautifully, and she would often play the end of a perfect day. She was known for that signature song. She loved tennis and sports. Very interested in history and Political Affairs herself. She always had been. She loved to use the white house yacht, the mayflower. Found that very relaxing. Again, i dont like to keep going back to the Kidney Disease, but on days where she felt good, that was a good place to entertain Close Friends and relax a little bit. She also, i think, relaxed a lot because she invited different people to the white house. She was very interested in hearing their views. One thing she would do, this is in the days where youd leave your calling card at the white house, and she would pick one at random and invite them for tea that afternoon. You know, it could be anybody. She is described as always listening to people very intently. She said she looked in their eyes to see their souls. That was her way of knowing if you are being genuine with her. She would always clasp her hands around her knees and lean forward and intently Pay Attention to what you were saying. That was even a form of relaxation for her. She liked to play bridge. She loved to go horse back riding as a younger woman, but didnt get to in the white house. But loved to ride in automobiles and liked to go as fast as possible. So liked to go motoring, as they called it. Her tragedy, you know, weve seen we saw repeated again with the remember addykennedys, husband dies in office. The ironic part, always, is that her health was always considered to be much worse than his. They didnt publicly know then that their president suffered from congestive Heart Failure, before he took that famous trip across the country to the western states and alaska. She has had Kidney Disease. She had a couple of scares of it during the trip. But it amazed me that she even endeavored to take the trip. I think a lot of us, if we had a chronic condition like that, would say, ill stay close to home. She says, fine, were going to alaska. Lets go. She loved travel. She had that sense of adventure, and the feeling that, i know i have bad health but im going cram as much as i can into my life. And she exemplified that. Her husband dies in San Francisco of a heart attack. He is its reported to the press earlier that day that he died august 2nd, 1923, that he might be coming out of the woods and feels that way himself. Of course, dies. Much like grace, much like jackie kennedy, she is stoic. The newspaper reporters who had gone on the trip, of course, theyre reporting now this horrible change of events as they go back east on the train. They say, shes never breaking down. Theyre worried. She hasnt shes not crying. She says, im not going to. She knows she has this responsibility of setting a stage for the country. She takes that very, very seriously. Privately, shes devastated. This is her whole world. She has no children to rely on. Her first son from a previous marriage died in 1915. Its her. We can only imagine how lonely and afraid she felt. Sure. Annet annette, hoover. We will do the light stuff first. Lou was a very, very avid horse woman. She loved to ride. She liked to motor, also. Not while she was first lady, but shortly after lous mother passed away, which is after they left the white house, lou gets in the car with her father excuse me lou gets in the car with her father in california and they drive across the country. Its a trip for him, but also a trip for her. They have large dogs. Knonorwegiaknornorwegian elk ho. It was either a German Shepherd or belgian mel no one knows f sure. They had a siamese in their later years. Somebody had given lou an irish wolf hound, named patrick. She was very close to her during the white house years. They had a will the of dogs, particularly, and some cats. Tragedy for the hoovers was not death of a child or death of a spouse, but the older of their two sons, Herbert Hoover jr. , who came to be known as pete by the family, contracted th eed e tuberculosis. No cure. Second of all, we left track of how severe and prevalent that illness was in a lot of different parts of the country. Lou, in her typical take charge, i got this sort of frame of mind, collects information on all the different potential sanitariums where pete with cca. They have tons of letters from wellmeaning people telling them how this can be cured. She eventually settles on the sanitarium in ashville, north carolina. They arrange for pete to go there. They thought about having him at the camp that lou and bert had built in the mountains, but they decided that pete really it was very inaccessible do they decided he needed to be where there was more attentive care and somewhere it was easily accessible. Petes wife and two children moved into the white house for the duration. Lou, her typical strong management style, take charge style. Her mother was a semiinvalid. She was accustomed to dealing with a parent whose health was up and down. This was not something new in her life, and she took charge like she neieded to and carried on. I want to leave some time for the audience. Then come back to let the first ladies themselves have the last word. I know that, what did they do, quickly, after the post white house years . Can you address that a bit . I can start with that because mine is really short. Yeah. Florence just lived 15 months after warren died. She didnt have much of a life after that. She was adamant that she really did not want to come back to marion, to her house, and she never came back to her house. It was just not the same place for her without her husband. She wanted to stay in washington. She liked life there. She had spent five years there as a senate wife before the white house. She wanted to travel in europe. Shed been there three times. Wanted to write her memoirs. She didnt do any of that because her Health Failed rapidly after warrens death. Her doctor who had been in marion and the white house, he ran a sanitarium outside of town here, and he basically badgered her to come back to marion, where he could keep an eye on her. She agreed, finally. Not happily. To live in a cottage on the sanitarium grounds. Doc was accessible to her. She ended her life at the sanitarium. Doc, close friend in addition to being her doctor, died in september of 24. He had a heart attack. That seemed to take the life out of her. That was one of her last very, very close comrades. She died in november. Had an extremely serious case of nephritis. They were tinkering with the idea of her having surgery. She slips into a coma, and she dies. She didnt get to accomplish what she wanted to afterwards. I wish she had had that opportunity. I think you would have seen the real florence really take on her own life. I think we did thank you. I do think that we did see mrs. Coolidge. Yes. Grace coolidge decided well, her husband encouraged her to write a little bit about the white house years. She did write several articles. He wrote his autobiography. They both had sort of a writing adventure there. But he and also, he has a syndicated column. They moved back to North Hampton. They go into their twofamily house. You tell me how youre going to take all the gifts from the white house that you are given in those days, you were allowed to keep them, and fit them in a twofamily house. I read a lot of the letters where she says to one girlfriend, can you please take this . Take that . Also, the dogs werent happy. They eventually moved to the beaches, which is a larger estate in North Hampton. Theyre both happier. Calvin does not live long after the white house. He dies in 1933. Grace says, well, ive got to move along. I have to figure something out. Their son had married in 29, and he and his wife had two daughters. She could take joy in them. Also, there was, as we all know, the run up to world war ii. Most people dont know this story. Grace coolidge was part of a North Hampton committee to rescue jewish children in germany. This was in 1939. She very bravely, because this is a woman who didnt get into politics, sends a telegram to the statehouse to encourage them to let the North Hampton committee adopt 25 jewish children. Heres the first lady, who would have had children in her home but, unfortunately, her theory was rolled into the wagnerrogers bill, and that was an attempt to rescue 20,000 jewish children, like ann frank. A anne frank did want to leave germany. It was not approved by congress, so we now have the story. They didnt know the holocaust was coming, but it was not done. Grace throws herself into helping get ready for world war ii. During world war ii, is a real volunteer, a spotter in North Hampton and that kind of thing. She did take a more active role in her post white house years. Then even though you have rationing, she doesnt get to plymouth much during the war, she seems the homestead going in plymouth, has an interest where her husband grew up and where he was sworn in. She decides to donate it to the state of vermont, if they will buy the birthplace. She was quite active as a preservationist, i like to see it that way. She lived until 1957. She did accomplish many of her goals after being first lady. She did, i would say, be brave, coming out with that stand. I know weve had a lot to talk about, and im afraid well have to ask gary if we can get to lou. She picked up where she left off prewhite house, which was to get engaged with a lot of the organizations that she had been involved in. She took another stint as the National President of the girl scouts of america. She moved back to a home she built in palo alto as the stanford campus, and there became involved and created friends of music, to bring musical concerts and Quality Music to that part of the country. She was selected to be on many college boards. The list is very long. Just two quickly, a womans college, and the alma mater of a subsequent president , richard nixon. She served on the board. She was active in the american the aauw, American Association of university women. Eventually, at some point, she decided she was going to have to start declining requests because she served on quite a number of boards, including the red cross. She also maintained her motoring fun, her camping out, sleeping on the hard ground. Took her granddaughters on a camping trip where they road horses into the remote parts of the Desert Southwest in the early age of the 60s. She said, i dont need a sleeping bag or tent. Im looking forward to sleeping on the hard ground. She continued to have a very active and vibrant life. Thank you. We have hit time. Are we allowed to do at least one or two questions . I think we can take two questions, if theyre brief. Thank you, gary. As to Florence Harding, i just wondered if sherry would have any comments about mrs. Harding being involved with the media. She got involved with a medium. She was interested in specialism, as a lot of people were during the time period in which she lived. I know famously, shes always made a big thing of she consulted madame marcy in washington, d. C. All of Washington Society women were going to madame marcys, as well. Madame marcy later claimed she predicted boom for the president , which is really easy to do after the fact. You know, it was done as a recreation. It was something kind of fun to do, like going somewhere and having someone read cards for you. It was a fun thing to do for a lot of women in society. It was the thing of the time, too. It really was. Another question . One more. I would like to know if harding would have won the electi election, if women would have been allowed to vote. We did a symposium about this a couple years ago. We investigated very closely, both the harding campaign and the cox campaign, his opponent. We asked a couple political scientists that very question. Did, as a rumor, always has said, did women vote for him because he was a good looking guy . Is that why, you know, all these women swarmed to him . They found there was really justification for that. There was no swell to the republican party. They tended to vote as their husbands did. A lot of women, even though many could vote in the 1920 election, some could not, particularly in the south, because of the registration requirements. Often they said, you have to register six months before the election. They didnt get the vote until august. That wasnt going to work. So there wasnt theres no real evidence that the women particularly made the difference in that election. They certainly added to the vote total. If that makes sense. Thank you all very much. Thank you. [ applause ]
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