First Ladies (87 page)

Good Housekeeping
editors evaluated the records of fifteen twentieth-century First Ladies and published the results in the July 1980 issue, p. 120. It should be noted that this ranking occurred before Ronald Reagan was elected, so Nancy Reagan is not included. Ida McKinley, whose husband was assassinated in September 1901, is also excluded, although technically she was a twentieth-century First Lady.

Although the
Good Housekeeping
overall ranking does not differ greatly from the historians' ranking (see
Appendix IV
), the characteristics on which the women were judged are quite different and sometimes contradictory (e.g., traditionalist and feminist).
Good Housekeeping
editors pointed out that their evaluations were not intended to pit the record of one woman against that of another but merely to “call attention to the manner in which each has responded to the challenge of her unpaid job.”

Omitted from this list are presidents who served without a First Lady: widowers Jefferson, Jackson, Van Buren, and Arthur; bachelor Buchanan. Woodrow Wilson's first wife, Ellen, died in 1914 and he married Edith in 1915. John Tyler's first wife, Letitia, died in 1842 and he married Julia in 1844. William Henry Harrison's wife had not yet arrived in the capital city when her husband died so she is omitted from the rankings.

This Siena Institute ranking for presidents was done in 2001; and it was done for First Ladies in 2008. Therefore, Laura Bush's ranking was done at the end of eight years while her husband's was after only one year, before his popularity dropped.

The author is grateful to Professors Thomas Kelly and Douglas Lonnstrom, Directors of the Siena Research Institute, Siena College, Loudonville, New York, for sharing this information. For more information, please see
www.siena.edu/sri/surveys.asp
.

Abell, Bess,
246

Adams, Abigail Smith,
xiv
,
6
–11,
12
,
14
,
16
,
22
,
26
,
27
,
30
–32,
35
,
45
,
51
,
52
,
62
,
67
,
69
,
203
,
265

   accusation against,
8

   marriage,
8

   as “minister without portfolio,”
9

   in Philadelphia,
9
–10

Adams, Ansel,
266

Adams, Charles Francis,
27

Adams, Henry (
Democracy
),
94

Adams, John Quincy,
xvii
,
xviii
,
4
,
9
,
10
–12,
14
,
19
–24,
40
,
47
,
62

   anniversary of Andrew Jackson's victory (1815),
21

   Declaration of Independence,
24

   as secretary of state,
19
–21

Adams, Louisa Johnson,
xiv
,
xviii
,
19
–24,
26
,
29
,
35
,
46
,
181

   “Adventures of a Nobody,”
23
–24

   courage,
xiv

   health,
22

   in Paris,
30

   St. Petersburg,
29
,
30

Addams, Jane,
129
,
136

age,
41
–42

   “rounding off,”
40
–41

Agnew, Spiro,
263

Agricola's De Re Metallica
(Bauer),
180

Alexander, Shana,
247

All Our Children: Families Under Pressure

in the United States
(Carnegie Council),
301

American Heritage Dictionary, The
,
361
n
7

American Historical Review, The
,
387
n
102

American Magazine
,
69

American Wife
(Sittenfeld),
333

American Women's Committee,
180

America's Treasures Act,
332

Ames, Mary Clemmer,
xv
,
88
,
93

Anderson, Judith Icke,
132

Anderson, Marian,
202

“Angels' Jail,”
116

An Invitation to the White House
(Clinton),
318

Anthony, Susan B.,
95

Arthur, Chester,
86
,
104
,
228
,
362
n
15

   presidency,
104

Astaire, Fred,
267

Atlantic
,
294

Atlantic Monthly
,
257

Auchincloss, Hugh,
226

Austin's Habitat for Humanity,
324

Babbitt, Harriet,
303

Babcock, Orville E.,
84

Babson, Roger W. (
Cox: The Man
),
384
n
13

Balanchine, George,
227

Baldrige, Letitia,
227
,
257
,
277
,
362
n
9

Banner, Lois,
196

Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy,
291

Bayh, Marvella,
240
,
261

Beecher, Catharine

   on female debility,
51
,
52
,
370
n
82

Begin, Menachem,
273

Belknap, William,
84
–85

Bell, John,
72

Bennetts, Leslie,
313

Bergman, Ingrid,
214

Bernhardt, Sarah,
79

Beschloss, Michael,
316

Bethune, Mary McLeod,
201

Better Homes and Gardens
,
219
,
220

Biden, Jill,
303
,
345

Biden, Joe,
344
,
345

Bird, Lady Isabella Lucy,
53

Black, Ruby,
201

Blaine, James G.,
16
,
102

Blanton, Margaret,
58

Bliss, Bettie Taylor,
40
,
49

Bones, Helen,
145
,
147

Boston Globe
,
347

Bradwell, Myra,
79

Breckinridge, John,
72

Briggs, Emily,
xv
,
xvii

Britten, Nan,
163

   
The President's Daughter
,
164

Brooke, Edward,
300

Brown, Jerry,
305

Brown, John,
45

Bruck, Connie,
313

Bryan, Mary Baird,
111
–12,
115
–16,
307
,
320

   marriage,
116

Bryan, Ruth,
117
–18

Bryan, William Jennings,
115
–16,
131
,
142

   “cross of gold” oration,
115

   death,
117

   marriage,
116

Buchanan, James,
xvi
,
36
,
69

   presidency,
43

Buckley, James L.,
264
,
310

Bumiller, Elisabeth,
326

Bundy, McGeorge,
246

Bunner, Rudolph,
65

Bureau of Labor Statistics,
177

Burr, Aaron

   vice presidency,
12

Burros, Marian,
309

Bush, Barbara Pierce,
260
,
285
,
295
,
296
,
324

   early years,
285
–86

   as First Lady,
289
–93

   illness,
290

   married life,
286
–89

   studies,
295

   work,
295

Bush, Dorothy,
323

Bush, George Herbert Walker,
286
–93

   as chairman of Republican National Committee,
288

   studies,
286
–87

   marriage,
286

   as Permanent U.S. Representative to the United Nations,
288

   presidential campaign,
288
–89

   presidency,
289
–93

   as head of U.S. Liaison Office,
288

Bush, George W.,
287
,
295
,
303
,
309
,
321
–34,
340
,
362
n
15

   governorship,
324

   Iraq War and,
331
,
332

   marriage,
323

   PEPFAR and,
328

   presidency,
324
–34

   terrorist attacks on September
11
,
326

   trip to Afghanistan,
329

Bush, Jeb,
287

Bush, Jenna,
324

Bush, Laura,
321
–34,
336

   as ambassador for The Heart Truth,
332

   on Burma's oppressive government,
329

   early years,
321
–22

   
as First Lady,
324
–34

   honorary chairmanship of U.S.-Afghan Women's Council,
329

   Iraq War and,
331
,
332

   marriage,
323

   in National Book Festival,
325
–26

   PEPFAR and,
328

   “Poetry and the American Voice” and,
330

   on Taliban's oppression against women and children,
327

   teaching in Houston,
322
–23

   terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2011 and,
326

   Texas life,
324

   trip to Afghanistan,
329

   trip to Mae La refugee camp,
329

   
Whatever the Wind Delivers
,
321

Bush, Robin,
287

Butler, Nicholas Murray,
169

Butt, Archibald,
124

Calhoun, Floride,
63

Calhoun, John,
35

Campbell, Karlyn Kohrs,
328
,
341

Carnegie Council,
301

Caro, Robert,
237
,
239

Carpenter, Liz,
213
,
245
,
246
,
344

Carson, Rachel,
243