Which First Ladies Have Resembled-Mary Lincoln ?

[Liz Rosenthal]

(05-26-2013 11:49 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  I just read through this thread and instantly would think of Eleanor Roosevelt to resemble Mary. She backed her husband in politics and was active herself, she advocated for civil and human rights, she came from a wealthy family,she suffered from the loss of her parents in childhood (like Mary from her mothers') and her husband was president during wartimes.

You're right, Eva, that there are some similarities in background circumstances between Mary Lincoln and Eleanor Roosevelt. But, of the two, Eleanor was even more her own woman than Mary. This could have been due to the differing times, but Eleanor had learned to function on her own long before FDR became president, in social work and then political issues. To some extent, this was because of the rift that formed between Eleanor and Franklin when she learned of his affair with Lucy Mercer. It was also because of FDR's fight with polio; he concentrated on getting better, and she went out into the wider world.

But during FDR's presidency, her chief function was not so much to be a social director or hostess (something which she did not have an aptitude for) but to be her husband's "eyes and ears" around the country and, during the war, around the world. Eleanor had a column during her husband's presidency called "My Day," which told of her experiences in her fact-gathering travels. Although Eleanor was a controversial figure like her husband, she tended to be very well-loved and admired, too. Mary, unfortunately, was controversial, and well-loved and admired by few.

And during their years as widows, their activities were radically different from each other. Mary spent the remainder of her life dealing with being a widow and worrying about money -and attempting to fend off her son's decision to have her committed to an insane asylum - whereas Eleanor became known as the "First Lady of the World," adopting human rights as her cause.

It's interesting that they both died around the same number of years after their husbands' respective deaths: Mary in 1882, 17 years after the assassination; and Eleanor in 1961, 16 years after FDR's fatal stroke. Mary's death was much more tragic given how miserable her life had been following the assassination.