IDA MCKINLEY .

There was little resemblance between the petulant invalid who came to the White House with William McKinley in March 1897 and vivacious young woman he had married 26 years before. Now her face was drawn and her eyes glazed with pain or dulled with sedative. Only one thing had remained the same: a love that had brightened early years of happiness and endured through more than two decades of illness.

Ida Saxton was born in Canton, Ohio, in 1847, elder daughter of a socially prominent and well-to-do family. Her father, a banker, indulged his two daughters. He educated them in local schools and a finishing school, and then sent them to Europe on the grand tour.

Being pretty, fashionable and a leader of the younger set in Canton did not satisfy Ida, so her broad-minded father suggested that she work in his bank. As a cashier she caught the attention of Major William McKinley. They fell deeply in love and married in January 1871. While her husband rose in his profession, Ida devoted her time to home. That first Christmas, a daughter, Katherine, was born; then another girl came in April 1873. The frail baby died within six months. Phlebitis and epileptic seizures shattered Ida’s health. Even before little Katie died in 1876, Mrs. McKinley was a confirmed invalid.

Although politically active, William McKinley was never far from her side. He arranged their life to suit her convenience. Ida spent most of her waking hours in a small Victorian rocking chair that she had had since childhood. She sat doing fancywork and crocheting bedroom slippers while she waited for her husband, who indulged her every whim.

Once at the White House, Ida received guests at formal receptions seated in a blue velvet chair. She held a fragrant bouquet to suggest that she would not shake hands. Contrary to protocol, she was seated beside the president at state dinners as he kept close watch for signs of an impending seizure. If necessary, he would cover her face with a handkerchief for a moment. The first lady and her devoted husband seemed oblivious to any social inadequacy. Guests were discreet and newspapers silent on the subject of her "fainting spells." Only in recent years have the facts of her health been revealed.

When President McKinley was shot by an assassin in September 1901, he thought primarily of her. He murmured to his secretary: "My wife - be careful…how you tell her - oh, be careful." After his death she lived in Canton, cared for by her younger sister, visiting her husband's grave almost daily. She died in 1907, and lies entombed beside the president and near their two little daughters in Canton's McKinley Memorial Mausoleum.

EDITH ROOSEVELT .

Edith Kermit Carow knew Theodore Roosevelt from infancy; as a toddler she became a playmate of his younger sister Corinne. Born in Connecticut in 1861, she grew up in an old New York brownstone on Union Square - an environment of comfort and tradition. Throughout childhood she and "Teedie" were in and out of each other's houses.

Attending Miss Comstock's school, she acquired the proper finishing touch for a young lady of that era. A quiet girl who loved books, she was often Theodore's companion for summer outings at Oyster Bay, Long Island. This ended when he entered Harvard. She attended his wedding to Alice Hathaway Lee in 1880, and their lives ran separately until 1885, when he was a young widower with an infant daughter, Alice.

He and Edith were married in London in December 1886. They settled down in a house on Sagamore Hill, at Oyster Bay, headquarters for a family that added five children in ten years: Theodore, Kermit, Ethel, Archibald, and Quentin. Public tragedy brought the large vice-presidential family into the White House when President McKinley succumbed to an assassin's bullet.

Assuming her new duties with characteristic dignity, Edith guarded the privacy of a family that attracted everyone's interest. The public, in consequence, heard little of the vigor of her character, her sound judgment and her efficient household management. But in this administration the White House was unmistakably the social center of the land. Two family events were highlights: the wedding of "Princess Alice" in 1906 and Ethel's debut in 1908. An aide described the first lady as "always the gentle, high-bred hostess; smiling often at what went on about her, yet never critical of the ignorant and tolerant always of the little insincerities of political life."

President Roosevelt once wrote to his son: "If Mother had been a mere unhealthy Patient Griselda I might have grown set in selfish and inconsiderate ways." Edith continued, with keen humor and unfailing dignity, to balance Theodore’s exuberance when they retired in 1909.

After her husband’s death in 1919, Mrs. Roosevelt traveled widely abroad but always returned to Sagamore Hill as her home. Alone much of the time, she never appeared lonely, being still an avid reader. She kept till the end her interest in the Needlework Guild, a charity that provided garments for the poor, and in the work of Christ Church at Oyster Bay. She died on September 30, 1948, at the age of 87.

HELEN TAFT .

"Nellie" Herron was born in 1861, and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. She studied music with enthusiasm, attending a private school in the city. As "the only unusual incident" of her girlhood, she recalled her visit to the White House at age 17 as the guest of President and Mrs. Hayes, intimate friends of her parents.

The year after this notable visit she met "that adorable Will Taft," at a sledding party. They found intellectual interests in common and friendship matured into love. They were married in 1886. A "treasure," Taft called her, "self-contained, independent, and of unusual application." He suggested she ought to become secretary of the treasury!

No woman could hope for such a career in that day, but Mrs. Taft welcomed each step in her husband's. They had three children - Robert, Helen, and Charles – by the time he took charge of American civil government in the Philippines in 1900. Helen’s willingness to take her children to a country unsettled by war, and the delight with which she undertook the journey were characteristic of this woman who loved a challenge. Travel with her husband brought an interest in world politics and a cosmopolitan circle of friends. His election to the presidency in 1908 gave her a position she had long desired.

As first lady, Helen Taft concentrated on giving the administration a social brilliance. Only two months after the inauguration she suffered a severe stroke. An indomitable will had her back in command again within a year. At the New Year's reception for 1910, she was a graceful figure. The Taft’s daughter left college for a year to take part in social life at the White House, and the gaiety of her debut enhanced the 1910 Christmas season.

The administration’s most outstanding event was an evening garden party for several thousand guests on the Tafts' silver wedding anniversary, June 19, 1911. Helen thought of this as "the greatest event" in her White House experience. Her book, Recollections of Full Years, gives her account of a varied life. And the capital's famous Japanese cherry trees, planted around the Tidal Basin at her request, form a notable memorial.

Her public role in Washington did not end when she left the White House. In 1921 her husband was appointed Chief Justice of the United States - the position he had desired most of all - and she continued to live in the capital after his death in 1930. Retaining to the end her love of travel and of classical music, Helen Taft died at her home on May 22, 1943.