Edith Wilson may have wielded more power than any first lady in U.S. history for a period during the second term of Woodrow Wilson’s presidency but, if she did, she never admitted it.
That’s part of the story that Rebecca Roberts tells in her new book called “Untold Power.”
Edith Wilson first met the president during Wilson’s first term. “She inherited a jewelry store when her first husband died in 1908. She was a wealthy woman of status. She was the first woman in Washington to get a driver’s license. She’d tool around D.C. in her little electric car.
While Woodrow, himself a widower, was taken with Edith right away, she took a little longer to accept his proposal. “She initially told him that she’d marry him if he lost (the 1916 election) but came around and said she’d marry him regardless of the vote,” Roberts told Steve Tarter.
While she never gave any interviews, Edith Wilson blazed trails in a lot of ways, said Roberts, who described the first lady as fascinated by politics.
When Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke in October 1919, the president became bedridden. That’s when Edith stepped up as acting president although no formal acknowledgement was ever made. The physical problems that Woodrow Wilson suffered were kept from the public, the press and the president, himself, said Roberts. During this period of his incapacity, if you needed to see the president, you dealt with Edith, she said.
After Wilson left the White House in 1921, Edith covered her tracks and downplayed her role, emphasizing she was only the dutiful wife, said Roberts.
After his presidency, the Wilsons remained in Washington. Woodrow Wilson died in 1924 but Edith outlived him by 37 years, dying in 1961. Following her husband’s death, she returned to her role as wealthy widow, said Roberts, noting that her one focus throughout her life was to burnish her husband’s legacy whenever she could.
Comments & Upvotes