Born: 1872
Died: 1961

Edith Bolling grew up in a small Virginia town where her father settled after losing his plantation in the Civil War. Starting over as a rural lawyer and judge, he barely managed to support his 11 children. With money scarce, Edith received little formal education but she was a quick study and learned from those around her. At 18, she met Washington jeweler Norman Galt while on a visit to her sister. She married him at 24 and bore their only child who lived just days. A widow at 36, Edith’s inheritance allowed her to continue a sophisticated lifestyle complete with trips to Europe and haute couture. She was visiting the White House at age 43 when she met the recently-widowed President, 58-year-old Woodrow Wilson. Sparks flew and the couple wed in 1915.

As First Lady, Edith was her husband’s biggest booster and a plucky role model for a nation at war. She led conservation drives, raised funds, and volunteered for the Red Cross. Behind the scenes, she learned the Allies’ secret code and deciphered dispatches from the front. Edith accompanied Woodrow to the Paris Peace Conference, and after his crippling stroke in 1919, she rigidly controlled access to his sick room. Determined to protect his fragile health, she picked which matters to present to him when. After leaving the White House in 1921, Edith and Woodrow had three more years together. She survived him by 37 years.

Twenty-Eighth President
Woodrow Wilson

Born: 1860
Died: 1914

Ellen Axson and Woodrow Wilson shared a common heritage. Their fathers were both Presbyterian ministers in the South. Ellen grew up in Rome, Georgia, the oldest of four children. She helped raise her siblings after her mother died, but her passion was art. At 22, she went to New York City to study at the Art Students League. Besides painting, she took in lectures by social reformers and volunteered at a mission school. She also kept up a correspondence with 25-year-old Woodrow, a lawyer she’d met at her father’s church who was off pursuing his Ph.D. After marrying in 1885, Woodrow taught at successive colleges while Ellen raised their three girls. Sharing her husband’s interest in public policy, she contributed ideas for his speeches at Princeton and later in politics. He considered her his greatest advisor.

Ellen was First Lady for only 17 months before she died at 54 of Bright’s disease. But in that time, she accomplished much. Appalled by the slums in Washington, Ellen motivated Congress to enact housing reform — the Alley Dwelling Act of 1914. She also continued painting (her work was well-received by experts), and promoted the crafts of the Appalachian women. And, within a six month period, she held White House weddings for two of her daughters.

Twenty-Eighth President
Woodrow Wilson

Born: 1856, Staunton, VA
Died: 1924

The son of a Presbyterian minister, Woodrow Wilson was a progressive reformer and idealist. He was also remote and rigid — righteous to a fault. After attending Princeton and practicing law briefly, he returned to his alma mater as a professor of political science, becoming president of the University in 1902. In 1910, Wilson was elected Governor of New Jersey and in 1912 he became the Democrat’s Presidential nominee on the 46th ballot.

Backed by a Democratic majority in Congress, President Wilson pushed through numerous reforms, including a graduated income tax, a lower tariff, laws restricting child labor, and the Federal Reserve Act. In 1916 the war in Europe was the major issue of the day — Wilson opposed intervention and narrowly won re-election. Soon after, Germany’s mounting aggression against the U.S. forced the President to declare war, to “make the world safe for democracy.”

In his “Fourteen Points” peace plan, Wilson called for a “League of Nations” after the Allied victory. But Congress, by then Republican and isolationist, failed to ratify the League’s Treaty (of Versailles). Wilson suffered a stroke while on a national tour promoting the League, which had become his passion. In 1920 he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Twenty-Eighth President
Democrat