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 ] our coverage of president ial candidates of the iowa state fair continues all week. Former Texas Governor rick perry is running for the 2016 republican nomination and will take the traditional Des Moines Register soapbox stage. Later, a couple candidates visit the first of the nation primary state of new jersey. John kasich calls a town call meeting in se lalem. Chris christie also answers questions at a town hall meeting in salem, live at 7 p. 00 p. M. O wednesday. More history tv and the erence on modern first ladies. The Ohio State University at mare yo marion and the National First ladies cohosted the event. This is bridging the gap. Its my honor to present the executive director of the National FirstLadies Library, patricia krider. [ applause ] thank you very much. Im very happy to be here today, and be here in marion this weekend. On behalf of the National FirstLadies Library and the First Ladies National Historic site, were thrilled to be part of this symposium. My job here this afternoon is to talk to you about some of these first ladies that followed lou and grace. They paved the way for future things to come. Im going to be talking about Eleanor Roosevelt through pat nixon. The evolution of the role of the first ladies has never taken a straight upward path. Its always been kind of two step poor waforward, one step b. The reason for that is because not all first ladies served the role in the same way. There is no defined role, so they can do with the role whatever they choose, which is a good thing. Because they can do whatever fits their personality. Whatever fits their interests. You have to remember that first ladies come from very, very different backgrounds. Very different lifestyles. They come from all over the country. So they dont all have the same interests, and they dont have the same causes. They dont have the same way of doing the role. Some first ladies served much longer than others. We have Eleanor Roosevelt, who served a little over 12 years. She had a lot of time to do a lot of things. Then we have other first ladies who get not even four years. Really, when we look at first ladies, we have to remember that were only seeing a small sn snippit of their lives, generally four to eight years. Thats what people focus on. Many of these first ladies, women, had an active role before they become first lady and then after. What im going to do is i am going to give you brief facts on each of the first ladies before i start getting into their history. Eleanor roosevelt, anna Eleanor Roosevelt roosevelt was born in new york city, and she was born to wealthy parents. They died within two years of each other when eleanor was just under 10. She was raised by her maternal grandmother. Theodore roosevelt was her uncle. As far as education, she had private tutors. She went to a convent school. She went to a Girls Academy in london. But she had no college. Having no college was a regret that she had her entire life. She marmarri married her fifth. She had five sons and one daughter. She became first lady at 48 years old, and she served, like i mentioned, a little more than 12 years. Unprecedented, never happened before, will never happen again. And she died at age 78. Shes buried in hyde park, new york. Eleanor roosevelt was a phenomenal woman. Difficult for any first lady to live up to eleanors accomplishments. She was the eyes, ears and legs of fdr. She took full advantage of the way that was paved by florence and by grace and by lou. And what most people dont realize is that the social activism of eleanor started well before she married fdr. Because of her position in life, she had the ability to be a volunteer, to be involved in activities. When she was a young woman, she volunteered at settlement houses in new york city. She was involved in various organizations. She became an inspector. Shed go into the homes of the garment workers, to see what their Living Conditions were. She promoted exercise for particularly the women that were in the industry, because they lived in cramped quarters and worked in cramped quarters. She put together programs of dance and cal sthet ithet ca stettics. They worked on bettering the Living Conditions, of particularly the workers in the garment industries. In 1920, when fdr was the Vice President ial candidate, eleanor went on a 1920 Whistle Stop Campaign tour with him. But interestingly enough, she never made any speeches at that time. Its 1920. Women are just getting the right to vote. She considered this to be a social boundary not yet to be crossed. By the 1940s, all of this had changed. Eleanor was out there, she was a tireless come pain leless camp. She was everywhere, doing everything. 1940, shes the first first lady to address a national convention, when fdr is nominated for his third term. Eleanor supported so many causes. Just a numerous number of causes. She didnt go into the white house saying, this is going to be my cause. She went into the white house and said, im going to do as many things as possible by word and by deed. She was involved with the red cross. Both during world war i and world war ii. She became active in Democratic Party politics. She was involved with a lot of women organizations. The women union trade league, and the league of women voters. Organizations that encouraged women to become interested and involved in politics, and know what was going on politically. She was an early champion for civil rights for africanamericans, and she was always an advocate for women. She was always an advocate for american workers. For poor and young people. She supported governmentfunded programs for artists and writers. And she encouraged her husband to put for women in federal positions. She was always interested in global peace. During world war ii, she worked extensively in war efforts. She continued her work with the red cross. She wanted to bring european refugees to the united states. She promoted issues that were helpful to the american troops. She encouraged volunteerism on the home front, and she championed women who were employed in the defense industry. Eleanor, she took advantage of all the media that was available out there. She was a writer. She was a public speaker. She was a media figure. She held press conferences. She had 348 press conferences in total. She would have press conferences for women reporters only. Men reporters were banned. And the effect of this was that the newspapers and the radio stations and the magazines, who wanted to cover her press conferences, they were forced to continue to employ women reporters. Eleanor actually was instrumental in pushing that role of women reporters to the professional level. She was a magazine columnist. She did many, many weekly and monthly magazine columns. She was a radio host. The evening of december 7th, 1941, the attack on pearl harbor, she went on the radio and she made a personal call for all the mothers, like herself, who had children who would now be called into active service. She was a lecturer and a public speaker. In her 12 years as first lady, she gave an estimated 1400 speeches. No other first lady published more books while first lady than Eleanor Roosevelt. She permitted all of her public appearances to be filmed by newsreel companies. And she got tons and tons and tons of public correspondence. Surprisingly, she answered personally a lot of those. Those that she couldnt answer, she had outlets by which she would transfer those, so those people would get some kind of a personal response. Her activism continued after sorry. Her activism continued after fdr died. She was appointed by president truman for a position at the united nations. She was the only woman among the five american delegates. She continued to be very active in the Democratic Party, but she resisted all efforts to get her to run for herself. She was continuing to be a very, very strong supporter of civil rights. Our next first lady is bess truman. Or be poor bess, has to follow eleanor. Bess isnt born in new york city. Shes born in independence, missouri. Her father dies when bess is about 18. Her mothers family was wealthy but independence, missouri, standards. She attended high school and finished high school. Bess married harry at age 34, and they had one daughter, margaret. Bess was a worker. She worked in harrys business. She worked in his senate office. She became first lady at 60 years old. Then she died at age 97. She is, to date, the first lady who has lived the longest. Shes buried at the truman president ial library in independence. Bess truman didnt want to be first lady. When harry accepted the nomination on the Vice President ticket, she asked him, she said, harry, what are you going to do if the president dies . Then youll be president. Was not happy. He accepted that nomination as Vice President without consulting her. You can see here in the photo that, you know, bess doesnt look real happy. Bess couldnt compete with Eleanor Roosevelt, and she didnt want to. When she becomes first lady, she asks, do i have to give press conferences . When she found out that she didnt have to, she cancelled the one that was already scheduled. She never gave one. Never gave a press conference. Shed answer writte