ELIZABETH MONROE .

Romance glints from what little is known of Elizabeth Kortright's early life. She was born in New York City in 1768, to an old New York family. Because of ties to the Crown, her father had taken no active part in the War of Independence; and James Monroe wrote to his friend Thomas Jefferson that he had married the daughter of a gentleman "injured in his fortunes" by the Revolution.

Strange choice, perhaps, for a patriot veteran with political ambitions and little money of his own - but Elizabeth was beautiful, and love was decisive. They were married in February 1786, when the bride was not yet 18. His political career kept the young couple on the move as the family increased by two daughters and a son who died in infancy.

In 1794, Elizabeth accompanied her husband to France when President Washington appointed him United States minister. Arriving in the midst of the French Revolution, she took a dramatic part in saving Lafayette's wife, imprisoned and expecting death on the guillotine. The American minister's wife went to the prison and asked to see Madame Lafayette. After this hint of American interest, the prisoner was set free. Elizabeth was very popular in France, and received the affectionate name of "la belle Americaine."

For 17 years the Monroes alternated between foreign missions and service in Virginia. They made the plantation of Oak Hill their home, and appeared on the Washington scene in 1811 when James became President Madison's secretary of state.

Elizabeth Monroe was an accomplished hostess after her husband took the presidential oath in 1817. She and her daughter changed White House customs to create the formal atmosphere of European courts. Even the White House wedding of her daughter Maria was private, in "the New York style" rather than the expansive Virginia social style made popular by Dolley Madison

Through much of the administration, however, she was in poor health and curtailed her activities. Wives of the diplomatic corps and other dignitaries took it amiss when she decided to pay no calls - an arduous social duty in a city of widely scattered dwellings and unpaved streets. Subsequent first ladies certainly benefited by Elizabeth Monroe’s breaking from this tradition.

In retirement at Oak Hill, Elizabeth died on September 23, 1830; and family tradition says that her husband burned the letters of their life together.

LOUISA ADAMS .

The only first lady from outside the United States, Louisa Catherine Adams did not come to this country until four years after she had married John Quincy Adams. Political enemies sometimes called her English. She was born in London in 1775 to an English mother, but her father was American who had served as United States consul.

John Quincy Adams developed an interest in charming 19-year-old Louisa when they met in London in 1794. Three years later they married, and in course of duty went to Berlin. At the Prussian court she displayed the style and grace of a diplomat's lady. The ways of a Yankee farm community seemed strange indeed when, in 1801, she first came to the United States.

In 1809 she left her two older sons in Massachusetts for education and took two-year-old Charles Francis to Russia, where Adams served as minister. Despite the glamour of the tsar's court, Louisa struggled with cold winters, strange customs, limited funds and poor health; an infant daughter born in 1811 died the next year. In 1814, she and little Charles had to make a 40-day journey across war-ravaged Europe. Happily, the next two years gave her an interlude of family life in the country of her birth.

The appointment of John Quincy as Monroe's secretary of state brought the Adamses to Washington in 1817, and Louisa's drawing room became a center for the diplomatic corps and other notables. Good music enhanced her Tuesday evenings at home, and theater parties contributed to her reputation as an outstanding hostess.

But the pleasure of moving to the White House in 1825 was dimmed by the bitter politics of the election and by her own poor health. She suffered from deep depression. Though she continued her weekly "drawing rooms," she preferred quiet evenings - reading, composing music and verse, playing her harp. The necessary entertainments were always elegant, however; and her cordial hospitality made the last official reception a gracious occasion although her husband had lost his bid for re-election.

Louisa thought they were retiring permanently, but in 1831 her husband began 17 years of notable service in the House of Representatives. In 1848, one year after their fiftieth wedding anniversary, John Quincy was fatally stricken at the Capitol. Louisa died in Washington in 1852, and today lies buried at his side in the family church at Quincy, Massachusetts.

Emily Donelson

RACHEL JACKSON .

Wearing the white dress she had purchased for her husband's inaugural ceremonies in March 1829, Rachel Donelson Jackson was buried at the Hermitage, her home near Nashville, Tennessee, on Christmas Eve,1828. Lines from her epitaph – "A being so gentle and so virtuous slander might wound, but could not dishonor" - reflected Andrew Jackson’s bitterness at campaign slurs that seemed to precipitate her death.

Born in Virginia in 1767, Rachel Donelson journeyed to the Tennessee wilderness with her parents when only 12. At 17, she married. But her husband’s unreasoning jealousy made it impossible for her to live with him. They separated in 1790, and she was told that he was filing a petition for divorce.

Andrew Jackson married Rachel in 1791, but after two happy years they learned that a divorce had never been obtained. Her first husband brought suit on grounds of adultery. After a divorce was granted, the Jacksons quietly remarried in 1794. Although it had been an honest mistake, whispers of adultery and bigamy followed Rachel. Jackson was ready to avenge any slight to her. Scandal aside, her unpretentious kindness won the respect of all who knew her. The Jacksons never had children of their own, but in 1809 they adopted a nephew and named him Andrew Jackson, Jr. They also reared other nephews.

After losing his beloved wife, Jackson asked Emily Donelson, Rachel’s favorite niece, to serve as his White House hostess. Though only 21, Emily skillfully cared for her uncle, her husband, her four children (three born at the mansion), many visiting relatives, and official guests. Praised by contemporaries for her wonderful tact, she had the courage to differ with the president on issues of principle. Frail throughout her lifetime, Emily died of tuberculosis in 1836.

During the last months of the administration, Sarah Yorke Jackson, wife of Andrew Jackson, Jr., the president’s adopted nephew, presided as hostess of the Executive Mansion in Emily Donelson’s stead.