Rebecca Boggs Roberts - Untold Power: The Fascinating Rise and Complex Legacy of First Lady Edith Wilson

She hated the title First Lady, preferring to be known by the name on her calling cards: Mrs. Woodrow Wilson. But for some months at the end of 1919 and beginning of 1920, Edith Bolling Galt Wilson held the most political power of any First Lady in history.

But the times, of course, they keep achangin. So not only can a First Lady rarely rely on the precedents of her predecessors, but sometimes the publics expectations change in real time while she fills the role. Edith became First Lady when she married President Woodrow Wilson at the end of 1915, after the death of his first wife, Ellen. Unlike wives who rise up through the political ranks with their husbands, she didnt have the luxury of an on-ramp to national attention. She had to develop a public persona overnight. She chose the role of devoted second wife, living only for the health and success of her brilliant husband. She also wanted to be known as a gracious social presence, in contrast to the earnestly awkward first Mrs. Wilson. Edith was praised for her choice as soon as the engagement was announced. Mrs. Galt is regarded as a woman of rare beauty and charm, the Washington Evening Star wrote approvingly. Those who have known her best predicted today that she would be, as the first lady of the land, a popular hostess as well as a comfort and support to the President in his daily work. If she was hoping to reflect the 1915 feminine ideal, she chose her image perfectly.

But the years Edith served as First Lady, 19151921, saw profound changes in womens social roles. World War I required women to take on traditional male jobs and do them well. Suffrage activists pushed for recognition of womens rights, not only securing the vote but also challenging the notion that public life was the exclusive domain of men. And while Edith was never a suffragist, she did take on more public roles than any First Lady before her. She was the first to stand behind the president when he took the oath of office. She was the first to accompany her husband on business calls with cabinet secretaries. She was the first to travel abroad while her husband was in office. She was welcomed and celebrated by royalty in England and Italy in a way no leaders wife had been before. She was admired globally for her public visibility, which was all still very much in the service of her husband, never for her own agenda. When she accompanied her husband to Europe in 1918, one English reporter gushed, No queen could have had a more queenly manner, no great lady could be more gracious, no woman more utterly winning than President Wilsons wife. Edith kept that clipping in her scrapbook.

So when her husband collapsed from a stroke in October 1919, no one should have been surprised when Edith inserted herself between his sickroom and the public. She would protect him from anything that might make his condition worse, which included most of the duties of the presidency. From the day of their marriage she had cast herself as his devoted helpmate, there to make his life easier both in private and in public, and she would continue that role until her husband recovered. For a little while, that was enough. A sympathetic public worried over their fallen leader and supported his wife as gatekeeper. But what no one knew, what they could not know because Edith controlled the truth so closely, was just how sick Woodrow was, how many decisions he could not make, and how long his illness lasted. For weeks, he was almost totally incapacitated. For months after that, he was weak, easily confused, with slurred speech, limited vision, and a useless left arm. He tired early and was sometimes unable to control his emotions. He slept a lot. Meanwhile, it was Edith who met with cabinet secretaries, Edith who drafted public statements, Edith who made decisions about who could visit her husband, what issues to tackle, and which to ignore. As history has revealed just how thoroughly and how long Edith maintained control over the executive branch, Americans have professed themselves amazed that this unambitious woman, this wife who wanted nothing more than to serve her adored husband, had the confidence, brains, and cunning to pull off a conspiracy of this magnitude.

But anyone who pays the slightest bit of attention to Edith before her 1915 marriage shouldnt be surprised at all. Ediths obituary in 1961 described her as a most retiring woman to that date, she entered public life in that peculiar white-hot glare that surrounds the White House in a near-election year. This is typical of the accounts that completely fail to even attempt to understand Edith, painting her as a not-very-bright country mouse who magically became the nations most powerful woman overnight. Many adjectives can accurately describe Edith, but retiring is not one of them. She was fierce, clever, gracious, funny, loyal, and brave. Also petty, snobbish, jealous, and bigoted. She had a somewhat fickle regard for the truth. These are not character traits she developed in the white-hot glare of public attention. Her whole history reveals a woman of uncommon shrewdness, ingenuity, and a little ruthlessness. Were she a man, her story would be celebrated as an up-by-your-bootstraps American dream.