EDITH WILSON .

"Secret President," "first woman to run the government" - so legend has labeled a first lady whose role gained unusual significance when her husband suffered prolonged and disabling illness. A happy, protected childhood and first marriage had prepared Edith Wilson for the duties of helpmate and hostess; widowhood had taught her something of business matters.

Descendant of Virginia aristocracy, Edith Bolling was born in Wytheville in 1872, the seventh among 11 children. Until age 12 she never left the town then at 15 she went to Martha Washington College to study music, with a second year at a smaller school in Richmond. In 1896 pretty young Edith married Norman Galt. For 12 years she lived as a contented (though childless) young matron in Washington. Norman died unexpectedly in 1908. Shrewdly, Edith chose a good manager who operated the family's jewelry firm with financial success.

By a quirk of fate and a chain of friendships, she met the bereaved President Wilson, still mourning for his first wife. A man who depended on feminine companionship, the lonely Wilson took an instant liking to Mrs. Galt. Admiration changed swiftly to love. They were married privately on December 18, 1915, at her home; and after they returned from a brief honeymoon in Virginia, their happiness made a vivid impression on their friends and White House staff.

Though the new first lady had sound qualifications for the role of hostess, the social aspect of the administration was overshadowed by the war in Europe. After the United States entered the conflict in 1917, Edith Wilson submerged her life in her husband's, trying to keep him fit under tremendous strain. She accompanied him to Europe when the Allies conferred on terms of peace. In September 1919 a stroke left him partly paralyzed.

His constant attendant, Mrs. Wilson took over many routine duties and small details of government. She selected matters for his attention and let everything else go to the heads of departments or remain in abeyance. Her "stewardship," she called this. And in My Memoir, published in 1939, she stated emphatically that her husband's doctors had urged this course upon her.

In 1921, the Wilsons retired to a comfortable home in Washington, where he died three years later. A highly respected figure in the society of the capital, Mrs. Wilson lived on to ride in President Kennedy's inaugural parade. She died later in 1961: on December 28, the anniversary of her famous husband's birth.

FLORENCE HARDING .

Daughter of the richest man in a small town, Florence Mabel Kling was born in Marion, Ohio, in 1860, and grew up in a setting of wealth, position, and privilege. A music course at the Cincinnati Conservatory completed her education. Much like her strong-willed father in temperament, Florence developed a self-reliance rare in girls of that era.

When only 19, she eloped. Her husband soon deserted her, and she returned to Marion with her baby son. Refusing to live at home, she rented rooms and earned her own money by giving piano lessons to children of the neighborhood. She attained a divorce in 1886 and resumed her maiden name.

Warren G. Harding ran the Marion newspaper, the Daily Star. When he met Florence, a courtship quickly developed. They married in 1891, in a house that Harding had planned, and this remained their home for the rest of their lives. They had no children.

Mrs. Harding took over the Star's circulation department, and the paper prospered as Harding’s political success increased. She directed all her acumen to his career. "The Duchess," as he called her, worked tirelessly for his election when he was nominated for President in 1920. In her own words: "I have only one real hobby--my husband."

When Mrs. Harding moved into the White House, she opened mansion and grounds to the public again - both had been closed throughout President Wilson's illness. She herself suffered from a chronic kidney ailment, but she threw herself into the job of first lady with energy and willpower. Garden parties for veterans were regular events on a crowded social calendar. The president and his wife relaxed at poker parties in the White House library, where liquor was available although the Eighteenth Amendment made it illegal.

Florence Harding always liked to travel with her husband. She was with him in the summer of 1923 when he died unexpectedly in California, shortly before the public learned of the major scandals facing his administration.

With astonishing fortitude she endured the long train ride to Washington with the president's body, the state funeral at the Capitol, the last service and burial at Marion. She died in Marion on November 21, 1924, surviving Warren Harding by little more than a year of illness and sorrow.

GRACE COOLIDGE .

For her "fine personal influence exerted as First Lady of the Land," Grace Coolidge received a gold medal from the National Institute of Social Sciences. In 1931 she was voted one of America's twelve greatest living women.

Born in 1879, Grace Anna Goodhue grew up an only child in the Green Mountain city of Burlington, Vermont. While still a girl, she learned of a school for deaf children in Northampton, Massachusetts, and decided to share its challenging work. She graduated from the University of Vermont in 1902 and went to teach at the Clarke School for the Deaf that autumn.

In Northampton she met Calvin Coolidge. In October 1905 they married at her parents' home. They lived modestly, moving into half of a duplex two weeks before their first son was born. Grace budgeted expenses well within the income of a struggling small-town lawyer and may be credited a full share in her husband's rise in politics. She worked hard, kept up appearances, took her part in town activities, attended her church and offset his shyness with a cheery friendliness. She bore a second son in 1908.

In 1921, as wife of the vice president, Grace Coolidge went from her housewife's routine into Washington society and quickly became the most popular woman in the capital. After President Harding's death, she planned the new administration's social life as her husband wanted it: unpretentious but dignified. Her time and friendliness now belonged to the nation, and she was generous with both. Under the sorrow of her younger son's sudden death at 16, she never let grief interfere with her duties as first lady. Tact and gaiety made her one of the most popular hostesses of the White House, and she left Washington in 1929 with the country's respect and love.

For greater privacy in Northampton, the Coolidges bought "The Beeches," a large house with spacious grounds. Calvin Coolidge died there in 1933. He had summed up their marriage in his autobiography: "For almost a quarter of a century she has borne with my infirmities, and I have rejoiced in her graces." After his death Grace sold The Beeches, bought a smaller house, and in time undertook new ventures she had longed to try: her first airplane ride and her first trip to Europe. She kept her aversion to publicity and her sense of fun until her death in 1957. Her chief activity as she grew older was serving as a trustee of the Clarke School; her great pleasure was the family of her surviving son, John.

LOU HOOVER .

Admirably equipped to preside at the White House, Lou Henry Hoover had experience as wife of a man eminent in public affairs at home and abroad. She had shared his interests since they met in a geology lab at Leland Stanford University. Hoover was fascinated, he declared later, "by her whimsical mind, her blue eyes and a broad grinnish smile."

Born in Iowa in 1874, Lou Henry grew up there for ten years until her father decided that the climate of southern California would favor the health of his wife. He took his young daughter on camping trips in the hills. Lou became a fine horsewoman; she hunted, and preserved specimens with the skill of a taxidermist. She also developed an enthusiasm for rocks, minerals, and mining. In 1894, she entered Stanford and completed her course before marrying Herbert Hoover in 1899.

The newlyweds left at once for China, where he worked as a mining engineer. His career took them about the globe - Ceylon, Burma, Siberia, Australia, Egypt, Japan, Europe. Her talent for homemaking eased their time in a dozen foreign lands. Two sons, Herbert and Allan, were born during this adventurous life. Lou spent time with the boys in California during World War I, and in 1919 she saw construction begin for a long-planned home in Palo Alto. But in 1921 her husband’s political career took the family to Washington. There, Lou spent eight years busy with social duties and an active participation in the Girl Scout movement, including service as its president.

The Hoovers moved into the White House in 1929, and the first lady welcomed visitors with poise and dignity throughout the administration. When the first day of 1933 dawned, however, Mr. and Mrs. Hoover were away on holiday. Their absence ended a New Year's Day tradition of the public being greeted personally by the president at a reception in the Executive Mansion.

Lou Hoover herself paid the cost of reproducing furniture owned by Monroe for a period sitting room in the White House. She also restored Lincoln's study for her husband's use. The Hoovers entertained elegantly, using their own private funds for social events while the country suffered worsening economic depression.

In 1933 they retired to Palo Alto, but maintained an apartment in New York. Herbert Hoover only learned the full lavishness of his wife's charities after her death there on January 7, 1944. She had helped the education, he stated, "of a multitude of boys and girls." He said she was ideal for the position she had held: "a symbol of everything wholesome in American life."