First Lady Jill Biden is not the first Presidential wife to be the obvious caregiver and protector of her husband. gatekeeper
President Woodrow Wilson’s second wife, Edith, was known to have hidden her husband’s severe illnesses from not only the public but his Cabinet and advisors as well.
It was Edith Wilson who decided what was important enough to bring to her husband’s attention, and it was Edith Wilson, as First Lady, who reviewed, studied, and made decisions on communications and encrypted messages meant for the President of the United States alone.
Edith Wilson’s story is part of the history taught at The Manse, the Staunton, Virginia home where Wilson was born when his father was a minister in the Presbyterian church there.
A magnificent house with a museum that is filled with artifacts and collectibles from the man who served as President during World War I, it is a popular attraction for historians and theater goers first drawn by the Shakespearean theater also in Staunton.
Emily Wilson, like Jill Biden, was her husband’s second wife, marrying him one year after the death of his wife. It was 1915, the first year of his Presidency when the couple, who had met several months earlier were married, she 15 years his junior.
As First Lady, Emily was the first woman to visit Europe during her husband’s presidential term and was with him as the Paris Peace Conference and at the signing of the Treaty at Versailles when the war ended in 1918.
The President suffered a severe stroke which left him bedridden and paralyzed in October 1919.
Edith, rather than defer to officials, took charge of her husband’s care, denying even Cabinet members any access to him and certainly keeping his severe illness out of the knowledge of the public.
It was she, a descendant of Pocahontas, who was in charge…her stewardship, she said….of her husband’s decisions during the remaining almost 18 months of his Presidency. It was she who decided which papers were important enough to bring to his attention, it was she who determined that his Secretary of State Robert Lansing should be removed from office. Lansing had called a meeting of the President’s Cabinet. But did not invite her to attend when she declined to let her husband be present.
In short, Edith said she was President Wilson’s “Vessel of Information” as she described herself. Politicians who knew of the President’s severe illness said at the time that no woman had ever had a husband who depended on her so much. They termed her the gatekeeper for the President of the United States.
Wilson remained in office for a year and a half following his debilitating stroke, and Edith handled his affairs from October of 1919 until he left office at the end of his term in March 1921.
After Wilson died in February 1924, his widow remained active in politics, headed the Board of Governors for the Women’s National Democratic Club, attended Franklin Roosevelt’s inauguration and later his funeral in 1945 as well as John Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961. She died in December of 1961 at age 89. Her birthplace in Wytheville, Virginia is a national historic site and museum.
Both President and Edith Wilson are buried at the Washington National Cathedral, the only President to be buried in Washington, DC.
If you ever visit Staunton, stay HERE
