LUCY HAYES .

There was no inaugural ball in 1877. When Rutherford B. Hayes and his wife left Ohio for Washington, the outcome of the election was still in doubt. When it was settled in his favor, Lucy Hayes watched her husband take his oath of office at the Capitol, her serene and beautiful face impressing even cynical journalists.

Lucy came to the White House well loved by many. Born in Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1831, she lost her father at age two. She was just entering her teens when her mother took her brothers to the town of Delaware to enroll in the new Ohio Wesleyan University. Lucy began studying with its excellent instructors, and graduated from the Wesleyan Female College in Cincinnati at 18, unusually well educated for a young lady of her day.

"Rud" Hayes had set up a law practice in Cincinnati, and began paying calls at the Webb home. References to Lucy appeared in his diary: "Her low sweet voice is very winning ... a heart as true as steel.... Intellect she has too.... By George! I am in love with her!" Married in 1852, they lived in Cincinnati until the Civil War, and he soon came to share her deeply religious opposition to slavery. Over 20 years Lucy bore eight children, of whom five grew up.

She won the affectionate name of "Mother Lucy" from men of the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry who served under her husband in the Civil War. She ministered to the wounded, cheered the homesick and comforted the dying. When Hayes became governor of Ohio, Lucy accompanied him on visits to state reform schools, prisons and asylums, gaining experience in what a woman of her time aptly called "semi-public life."

Lucy entered the White House with confidence. An admirer hailed her as representing "the new woman era." Although she was a temperance advocate and liquor was banned at the mansion during this administration, she took criticism of her views in good humor to become one of the best-loved hostesses to preside over the White House. She and the president celebrated their silver wedding anniversary there in 1877.

The Hayes term ended in 1881, and the family moved to "Spiegel Grove," their estate at Fremont, Ohio. Husband and wife spent eight active, contented years together until her death in 1889. Lucy was buried in Fremont, mourned by her family and hosts of friends.

LUCRETIA GARFIELD .

In the fond words of her husband, James A. Garfield, Lucretia "grows up to every new emergency with fine tact and faultless taste." She proved this to the nation - though she was always a reserved, self-contained woman. She flatly refused to pose for a campaign photograph, and much preferred a literary circle or informal party to a state reception.

Born in 1832, Lucretia Rudolph acquired a love of learning from her father, a leading citizen of Hiram, Ohio. She first met "Jim" Garfield when both attended a nearby school, and they renewed their friendship in 1851 as students at the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute.

Lucretia and James began a courtship in December 1853, not marrying until November 1858. His service in the Union Army from kept them apart, and their first child, a girl, died in 1863. But after his first lonely winter in Washington as a representative, the family remained together. They enjoyed a happy domestic life. A two-year-old son died in 1876, but five children grew up healthy and promising. "Crete" became more and more her husband's companion. In Washington, they read together, made social calls together, dined with each other and traveled in company. By 1880 they were as inseparable as his career permitted.

Garfield's presidency brought a cheerful family to the White House in 1881. Though not particularly interested in a first lady's social duties, Lucretia was deeply conscientious and her genuine hospitality made her dinners and receptions enjoyable. In May she fell gravely ill, apparently from malaria and nervous exhaustion. Garfield was profoundly distressed. "When you are sick," he had written her several years earlier, "I am like the inhabitants of countries visited by earthquakes."

She was still convalescing at a seaside resort in New Jersey when an assassin shot her husband on July 2, 1881. She returned to Washington by special train – "frail, fatigued, desperate," reported an eyewitness, "but firm and quiet and full of purpose to save."

During the three months her husband fought for his life, her grief, devotion and fortitude won the respect and sympathy of the country. In September, after his death, the bereaved family went home to their farm in Ohio. For another 36 years she led a strictly private but busy and comfortable life, active in preserving the records of her husband's career. She died on March 14, 1918.

Mary Arthur McElroy

ELLEN ARTHUR .

Chester Alan Arthur's beloved "Nell" died of pneumonia on January 12, 1880. That November, when he was elected vice president, he was still mourning her bitterly. In his own words: "Honors to me now are not what they once were."

Ellen Herndon’s family connections among distinguished Virginians had shaped her life. She was born in 1837 at Culpeper Court House, the only child of a naval commander. When her father was assigned to help establish the Naval Observatory, they moved to Washington, D. C. Ellen’s beautiful contralto voice attracted attention. She joined the choir at St. John's Episcopal Church on Lafayette Square.

In 1856 a cousin introduced her to "Chet" Arthur, who was establishing a law practice in New York City. They were engaged in 1857. In a birthday letter that year, he wrote of "the soft, moonlight nights of June, a year ago ... happy, happy days at Saratoga--the golden, fleeting hours at Lake George." He wished he could hear her singing.

That same year, 1857, Ellen’s father died a hero’s death at sea, going down with his ship in a gale off Cape Hatteras. The marriage did not take place until October 1859; and a son named for Commander Herndon died when only two. But another boy was born in 1864, and a girl, named for her mother, in 1871. Arthur's career was bringing the family an increasing prosperity. They decorated their home in the latest fashion and entertained prominent friends with elegance. At Christmas there were jewels from Tiffany for Nell and the finest toys for the children.

Her sudden death came when she was only 42. Just two days before she had attended a benefit concert without him in New York City, and caught cold that night while waiting for her carriage. She was already unconscious when he reached her side.

At the White House, Arthur would not give anyone the place that would have been his wife's. He asked his sister Mary (Mrs. John E. McElroy) to assume certain social duties and help care for his daughter. He presented a stained-glass window to St. John's Church in Ellen’s memory. It depicted angels of the Resurrection, and at his special request it was placed in the south transept so that he could see it at night from the White House with the lights of the church shining through.

Rose Cleveland

FRANCES CLEVELAND .

"I detest him so much that I don't even think his wife is beautiful," said one of President Grover Cleveland's political foes - the only person, it seems, to deny the loveliness of this notable first lady, first bride of a president to be married in the White House.

Frances Folsom was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1864, an only child. Her father was a law partner of Cleveland's. As a devoted family friend, Cleveland bought little "Frank" her first baby carriage. As administrator of the Folsom estate after her father's death, he guided her education with sound advice. When she entered Wells College, he asked Mrs. Folsom's permission to correspond with her, and he kept her room bright with flowers.

Though Frances and her mother missed his presidential inauguration in 1885, they visited Grover Cleveland at the White House that spring. Affection turned into romance, and despite a 27-year age difference, the wedding took place there on June 2, 1886.

Cleveland's sister Rose gladly gave up the hostess duties she had been fulfilling for her own career in education; and with a bride as first lady, state entertainments took on a new interest. Frances’s charm won her immediate popularity. She held two weekly receptions - one on Saturday afternoons, when women with jobs were free to come.

After Cleveland’s defeat in 1888, the couple lived in New York City, where baby Ruth was born. With his unprecedented re-election, Frances returned to the White House as if she had been gone but a day. Through the political storms of this term she always kept her place in public favor. People took keen interest in the birth of Esther at the mansion in 1893, and of Marion in 1895. Mrs. Cleveland had become one of the most popular women ever to serve as hostess for the nation.

The family moved out of the White House in 1897, and Frances bore two sons while they lived in Princeton, New Jersey. She was at her husband's side when he died there at their home, "Westland," in 1908.

In 1913 she married Thomas J. Preston, Jr., a professor of archeology, and remained a figure of note in the Princeton community until she died. She had reached her 84th year - nearly the age at which the venerable Mrs. Sarah Polk had welcomed the Clevelands on a presidential visit to the South, and chatted of changes in White House life from bygone days.

CAROLINE HARRISON .

The centennial of President Washington's inauguration heightened the nation's interest in its heroic past, and in 1900 Caroline Scott Harrison lent her prestige as first lady to the founding of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She served as its first president general. She took a special interest in the history of the White House, but the mature dignity with which she carried out her duties never overshadowed the fun-loving nature that had charmed "Ben" Harrison when they met as teenagers.

Born at Oxford, Ohio, in 1832, "Carrie" Scott was the second daughter of a the founder of the Oxford Female Institute. As a pupil there, she infatuated the reserved young Ben, then an honor student at Miami University. They were engaged before his graduation and married in 1853.

They enjoyed a happy family life interrupted only by the Civil War. While General Harrison was away, Caroline cared for their son and daughter, gave active service to the First Presbyterian Church and to an orphans' home. Blessed with considerable artistic talent, she was an accomplished pianist. She especially enjoyed painting for recreation.

During her husband's term in the Senate, 1881-1887, she was repeatedly kept away from Washington's winter social season by illness, and she welcomed their return to private life. But she moved with poise to the White House in 1889 to continue the gracious way of life she had always created in her own home. The Harrisons shared the White House with some of their relatives, including their daughter, Mary McKee, and her two children. Caroline’s efforts to have the mansion enlarged were in vain, but she did assure an extensive renovation with up-to-date improvements.

As well as giving elegant receptions and dinners, the first lady worked for local charities, established the collection of china associated with White House history and, along with other ladies of progressive views, helped raise funds for the Johns Hopkins University medical school on condition that it admit women. In the winter of 1891-1892, she fought illness as she tried to fulfill her social obligations. Caroline Harrison died of tuberculosis at the White House in October 1892, and after services in the East Room was buried at her own church in Indianapolis.

President Harrison’s daughter Mary acted as hostess for her father in the last months of his term. In 1896, after leaving office, he married Caroline’s widowed niece and former secretary, Mary Scott Lord Dimmick. She survived him by nearly 47 years, dying in January 1948.