The term "First Lady," used to indicate the President's wife, was never applied to Martha Washington. It was not heard, in fact, until 1877, when it was applied to Lucy Hayes, the wife of Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th President.

Here is a collection of First Lady facts:

Abigail Adams, First Lady from 1797–1801, brought the first piano to the White House.

Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady from 1933–1945, drove her own car and refused Secret Service protection. She agreed, however, to keep a pistol in the glove compartment.

Lucy Hayes, after becoming First Lady in 1877, would not permit liquor to be served at White House functions. Her stand earned her the nickname "Lemonade Lucy."

Rainbow was the Secret Service's code name for Nancy Reagan.

Nancy Reagan isn't the only First Lady to have had an acting career in the movies. During the mid 1930's when Pat Nixon was attending the University of Southern California, she worked as a Hollywood "extra," a person hired for a minor part in a film, such as in a crowd scene.

Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of the 16th President, has been described as selfish, spoiled, rude, and arrogant. She once complained so heatedly about food prices to the White House grocer that he quit. President Lincoln called the man into his office, put an arm about his shoulder and said, "Can't you stand for fifteen minutes what I have stood for fifteen years?"

Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams, the second President, was thought to have too much influence on her husband. For that, she was sometimes called "her Majesty."

Jane Pierce, wife of Franklin Pierce, the 14th President, believed that Washington and politics were evil. when her husband was seeking to be elected in 1852, she prayed that he would lose.

The Girl Scouts were the pet project of Lou Hoover, wife of the 31st President. She once served as the organization's national president.

Mamie Doud married Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1916, when he was an Army lieutenant. The Eisenhowers had 35 homes in 35 years at Army posts all over the world.

Claudia was the baptismal name of Lady Bird Johnson, the wife of Lyndon Johnson, the 36th President. She was nicknamed by a nursemaid who said she was "purty as a ladybird."

 

Adapted from Facts and Fun About the Presidents by George Sullivan. (Copyright 1987. Published by Scholastic.)