Grace Coolidge

For her "fine personal influence exerted as First Lady of the Land," Grace Coolidge received a gold medal from the National Institute of Social Sciences. In 1931 she was voted one of America's twelve greatest living women.

Born in 1879, Grace Anna Goodhue grew up an only child in the Green Mountain city of Burlington, Vermont. While still a girl, she learned of a school for deaf children in Northampton, Massachusetts, and decided to share its challenging work. She graduated from the University of Vermont in 1902 and went to teach at the Clarke School for the Deaf that autumn.

In Northampton she met Calvin Coolidge. In October 1905 they married at her parents' home. They lived modestly, moving into half of a duplex two weeks before their first son was born. Grace budgeted expenses well within the income of a struggling small-town lawyer and may be credited a full share in her husband's rise in politics. She worked hard, kept up appearances, took her part in town activities, attended her church and offset his shyness with a cheery friendliness. She bore a second son in 1908.

In 1921, as wife of the vice president, Grace Coolidge went from her housewife's routine into Washington society and quickly became the most popular woman in the capital. After President Harding's death, she planned the new administration's social life as her husband wanted it: unpretentious but dignified. Her time and friendliness now belonged to the nation, and she was generous with both. Under the sorrow of her younger son's sudden death at 16, she never let grief interfere with her duties as first lady. Tact and gaiety made her one of the most popular hostesses of the White House, and she left Washington in 1929 with the country's respect and love.

For greater privacy in Northampton, the Coolidges bought "The Beeches," a large house with spacious grounds. Calvin Coolidge died there in 1933. He had summed up their marriage in his autobiography: "For almost a quarter of a century she has borne with my infirmities, and I have rejoiced in her graces." After his death Grace sold The Beeches, bought a smaller house, and in time undertook new ventures she had longed to try: her first airplane ride and her first trip to Europe. She kept her aversion to publicity and her sense of fun until her death in 1957. Her chief activity as she grew older was serving as a trustee of the Clarke School; her great pleasure was the family of her surviving son, John.