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Presidents and First Ladies Trivia
06-20-2024, 12:12 PM (This post was last modified: 06-20-2024 12:14 PM by Anita.)
Post: #2281
RE: Presidents and First Ladies Trivia
Good guesses Rob, Michael and Roger, but please try again.
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06-20-2024, 01:17 PM
Post: #2282
RE: Presidents and First Ladies Trivia
Using the early advent of the automobile, I'll guess Alice Roosevelt.

"There are few subjects that ignite more casual, uninformed bigotry and condescension from elites in this nation more than Dixie - Jonah Goldberg"
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06-20-2024, 01:42 PM
Post: #2283
RE: Presidents and First Ladies Trivia
How about Nellie Taft?

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Rob

Abraham Lincoln is the only man, dead or alive, with whom I could have spent five years without one hour of boredom.
--Ida M. Tarbell

I want the respect of intelligent men, but I will choose for myself the intelligent.
--Carl Sandburg
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06-20-2024, 02:29 PM
Post: #2284
RE: Presidents and First Ladies Trivia
You nailed it Rob!

Nellie Taft made a permanent mark in history by becoming the first First Lady to ride in the Inaugural Parade with her husband, following the swearing-in ceremony. Many newspapers at the time considered it a symbol of what they assumed to be her support of full suffrage for women. Against the advice of traditionalists, she had decided she would make the ride several days earlier when she learned that outgoing President Roosevelt was opting out of the tradition to accompany his successor back to the White House. http://archive.firstladies.org/biographi...ography=27
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06-21-2024, 09:04 AM
Post: #2285
RE: Presidents and First Ladies Trivia
(06-20-2024 02:29 PM)Anita Wrote:  You nailed it Rob!

Nellie Taft made a permanent mark in history by becoming the first First Lady to ride in the Inaugural Parade with her husband, following the swearing-in ceremony. Many newspapers at the time considered it a symbol of what they assumed to be her support of full suffrage for women. Against the advice of traditionalists, she had decided she would make the ride several days earlier when she learned that outgoing President Roosevelt was opting out of the tradition to accompany his successor back to the White House. http://archive.firstladies.org/biographi...ography=27


Nellie Taft maintained a seemingly impossible ambition. Sparked by a visit to the Hayes White House as a teenager, Nellie Taft had determined as a young woman that, if she married it would be to a man who could be President. She did not believe she could be both married and work as a writer or musician, which were her career ambitions. In Taft she found her opportunity, despite his ambition to be Chief Justice.

During their life in Washington when he served as Solicitor-General (1890), Nellie Taft did all she could to forward her husband's career through social connections, but she feared he was on a judicial rather than executive track. This was further confirmed when he accepted the offer of President Benjamin Harrison to serve as Federal Circuit Court Judge (1892-1900).

After the Spanish-American War, however, when President William McKinley offered Taft the position of Governor-General (1900-1903) of the recently acquired Philippine Islands, Nellie Taft urged his acceptance and eagerly moved with her family to Manila. There she started a nutritional program for infants "Drop of Milk". She upset the American military establishment by breaking their previous code of refusing native peoples invitations to social events. Nellie Taft made a concerted effort to learn the language and culture of the various regions of the islands, and showed a respect towards the people of the Philippines that was unheard of from an Anglo-Saxon woman.

She also eagerly urged Taft to accept the offer of President Theodore Roosevelt to become his War Secretary (1904-1909). [S]he threw her energies entirely into helping secure Roosevelt's support for Taft as the Republican presidential candidate in 1908.

In early 1908, Nellie Taft held two unprecedented meetings with President Roosevelt, confronting him on his true motives for suggesting that he would support Taft over the other potential candidates. Nellie Taft firmly asserted in private letters that Roosevelt wanted another term but that his rash statement on election night 1904 in which he declared that he would not run again held him back. She believed it was a technicality and that if there was a popular groundswell for his re-nomination that he would abandon his support of Taft and accept the draft as candidate.

Nellie Taft was more thoroughly involved in the political elements of her husband's 1908 campaign than she was at any other point in his career. In dozens of letters, she advised him on how to position himself, sometimes down to what words to use, so that he would be seen as supporting some of Roosevelt's popular policies yet also standing on his own, apart from Roosevelt. Her role was largely hidden from the public, conducted instead through private correspondence or in closed-door meetings.

Throughout the Republican Convention in June of 1908, Nellie Taft and her husband kept in close contact with their representatives there; she was certain a stampede for Roosevelt would lead to his spontaneous nomination, instead of it coming to Taft.

Final note: During the primary and then general election, she feared that the press would learn that she enjoyed playing poker and other card games for money, even on Sundays, and that it might be considered a strike against her husband by those more religious voters who scorned on any type of gambling.

"So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out the truth of anything by history." -- Plutarch
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06-22-2024, 11:53 AM
Post: #2286
RE: Presidents and First Ladies Trivia
(06-21-2024 09:04 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  In early 1908, Nellie Taft held two unprecedented meetings with President Roosevelt, confronting him on his true motives for suggesting that he would support Taft over the other potential candidates. Nellie Taft firmly asserted in private letters that Roosevelt wanted another term but that his rash statement on election night 1904 in which he declared that he would not run again held him back. She believed it was a technicality and that if there was a popular groundswell for his re-nomination that he would abandon his support of Taft and accept the draft as candidate.

Nellie Taft was more thoroughly involved in the political elements of her husband's 1908 campaign than she was at any other point in his career. In dozens of letters, she advised him on how to position himself, sometimes down to what words to use, so that he would be seen as supporting some of Roosevelt's popular policies yet also standing on his own, apart from Roosevelt. Her role was largely hidden from the public, conducted instead through private correspondence or in closed-door meetings.

Throughout the Republican Convention in June of 1908, Nellie Taft and her husband kept in close contact with their representatives there; she was certain a stampede for Roosevelt would lead to his spontaneous nomination, instead of it coming to Taft.

Early in Taft's term, in May 1909, his wife Nellie had a severe stroke that left her paralysed in one arm and one leg and deprived her of the power of speech. Taft spent several hours each day looking after her and teaching her to speak again, which took a year.

Source: Rosen, Jeffrey (2018). William Howard Taft: The American Presidents Series. New York: Time Books, Henry Holt & Co., pages 61-62.

"So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out the truth of anything by history." -- Plutarch
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07-17-2024, 01:52 PM
Post: #2287
RE: Presidents and First Ladies Trivia
According to Elizabeth Keckly what was Mary Lincoln's favorite color?
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07-17-2024, 03:57 PM
Post: #2288
RE: Presidents and First Ladies Trivia
OK. I'll start the guessing. Was it purple?
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07-17-2024, 04:08 PM
Post: #2289
RE: Presidents and First Ladies Trivia
Nope, not purple, Scott.
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07-17-2024, 07:50 PM
Post: #2290
RE: Presidents and First Ladies Trivia
Well, if it wasn't purple, then I guess blue would pretty much be out of the question. How about red?

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Rob

Abraham Lincoln is the only man, dead or alive, with whom I could have spent five years without one hour of boredom.
--Ida M. Tarbell

I want the respect of intelligent men, but I will choose for myself the intelligent.
--Carl Sandburg
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07-17-2024, 09:40 PM
Post: #2291
RE: Presidents and First Ladies Trivia
Crimson ?

“The honest man, tho' e'er sae poor,
Is king o' men for a' that” Robert Burns
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07-18-2024, 06:34 AM
Post: #2292
RE: Presidents and First Ladies Trivia
All logical guesses, but none is correct.
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07-18-2024, 10:22 AM
Post: #2293
RE: Presidents and First Ladies Trivia
Green ?

So when is this "Old Enough To Know Better" supposed to kick in?
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07-18-2024, 10:28 AM
Post: #2294
RE: Presidents and First Ladies Trivia
Looking at pictures of Mary, the one color that I see often repeating itself in her outfits is white, so that will be my guess.

Best
Rob

Abraham Lincoln is the only man, dead or alive, with whom I could have spent five years without one hour of boredom.
--Ida M. Tarbell

I want the respect of intelligent men, but I will choose for myself the intelligent.
--Carl Sandburg
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07-18-2024, 10:30 AM
Post: #2295
RE: Presidents and First Ladies Trivia
Eggshell

"There are few subjects that ignite more casual, uninformed bigotry and condescension from elites in this nation more than Dixie - Jonah Goldberg"
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