Ellen Wilson and Grace Coolidge

Ellen Louise Axson Wilson

Born: May 15, 1860 in Savannah, Georgia

Died: August 6, 1914 in Washington, D.C., in the White House

Courtship and Marriage:  In the summer of 1883, Ellen met Thomas Woodrow Wilson at her father’s church and fell in love. Both were highly principled, motivated and widely read people who had deeply passionate and romantic hearts.  Both Woodrow and Ellen were religious, she more open minded than he and both were to be deeply dependent on one another.  Their early courtship was made more difficult due to Rev. Axson’s collapse and later commitment to an insane asylum, which was a drain on Ellen’s emotions and physical strength.  Axson’s death on May 28, 1884, a probable suicide, saddened Ellen and made her question her desirability as a wife, but Woodrow overcame her fears.  Using some of the money left to her by her father, Ellen returned to New York to study art at the Art Student’s League and on Sunday afternoons she taught African-American children at the city mission.  She and Woodrow wrote each other of their hopes, dreams, and when he was offered a teaching position at Bryn Mawr College, they were able to marry.  They married at her grandparents’ home in Savannah, the ceremony being conducted by her minister grandfather and father-in-law on June 24, 1885.

Age at Marriage: 25 years, 40 days

 First Lady:  March 4, 1913- August 6, 1914.  Ellen Wilson had but a year and five months in the White House. The second Mrs. Wilson would soon overshadow the public’s memory of Ellen, which is unfortunate because Ellen made her own contributions while First Lady.  Her gentle manner and soft Southern drawl made the staff call her “the Angel in the White House.”  She would be aided by all three of her daughters and her cousin Helen Bones, who served as her personal secretary. She also hired Belle Hagnar as her social secretary.  She averaged over 41 receptions with 600 guests at each that spring and found time to redecorate the family quarters of the White House, including artwork from the Appalachians Hills.  Ellen also oversaw the creation of the Rose Garden, bringing her gardener from Princeton to the White House.  It was in the area of reform that Ellen Wilson made her greatest impact. On March 22, 1913, she listened as the head of the women’s department of the National Civic Federation told her of the plight of Black citizens in Washington.  Two days later, Mrs. Wilson toured the city and saw first hand the slums of the nation’s capital.  She also saw the working conditions of women in the Post Office, where they didn’t have sanitary facilities.  Mrs. Wilson had difficulty in getting the attention of the President’s advisor, Colonel Edward House, until she pointedly asked him questions at a White House dinner in a loud enough voice to gain everyone’s attention.  The situation was soon corrected, at least for women in the Post Office.  Ellen Wilson joined a committee of 50 to campaign for the passing of an bill that would destroy the slums and create better housing for Washington’s poor.  She became interested in child labor laws, the enforcement of school attendance laws, and the use of schools as recreation centers.  In the summer of 1913, Ellen went to join an art colony in Cornish, New Hampshire.  The letters between husband and wife showed how much Wilson needed and depended on Ellen.  Jessie’s wedding on November 25, 1913 in the White House was a moment of great joy but for Ellen, it depleted her small reserve of strength.  In March 1914, Ellen fell in her bedroom which shook her already weakened body.  The doctors by then knew she had Bright’s Disease, but she was not told for a long while.  She begged her husband to see her bill passed and shortly before she died, she was told that the Alley Dwelling Bill had passed.  

Even though Ellen was not at the white house long due to her death she played a big part in her position as first lady.   She was key to a bill passing called Alley Dwelling Bill that was past just before her death.  Though she did not have a big key in the publics eye. 

Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge

Born: January 3, 1879 Burlington, Vermont
Died: July 7, 1957

In the spring of 1905, she met Calvin Coolidge.

Husband: (John) Calvin Coolidge (1872 – 1933)

Courtship and Marriage: Grace and Calvin has a whirlwind romance. They met in the spring of 1905 and were married that fall. The biggest obstacle in their romance was Grace’s mother, Lemira Goodhue. Lemira thought very little of her daughter’s choice for a husband. Calvin’s father, Colonel John Coolidge, on the other hand, thought the world of Grace. Coolidge was a quiet, shy, silent man who shared with Grace a love of family, a quiet faith and an impish sense of humor. Over Lemira Goodhue’s objections, Grace and Calvin were married on October 4, 1905 at her parent’s home in Burlington, Vermont.
Age at Marriage: 26 years, 274 days

 At no point did Coolidge ever consult Grace about his political decisions.


First Lady: August 2, 1923 – March 4, 1929: A telephone call alerted the Coolidges early on the morning of August 3, 1923 that President Harding had died in San Francisco. Grace Coolidge watched as her husband was sworn is as President by his father, Colonel John Coolidge, a notary public. (It was later discovered that a notary public could not swear in a president and the oath had to be re-administered). Grace thought to herself, "This is me and yet not me." She already began to feel the distance created by becoming First Lady.
The Coolidges were sympathetic to Mrs. Harding and did not push her to leave the White House. When she did on August 16th, the Coolidges waited another week before moving in.
President Coolidge made all the decisions on White House functions, including when, where, and who was to be invited and even kept a tight control on the kitchen. Grace’s only role was to appear ready, pretty, well dressed and charming. When she questioned her husband about the evening receptions and who was invited, he was not forthcoming with information. It took every ounce of her charm, sunny disposition and humor to offset his taciturn and sour disposition. It was Mrs. Coolidge who fostered stories of her husband’s dry wit and who used her own sense of humor to lighten what could have been a dull White House.