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Judith Martin | 11/23/2008 11:00 pm

Judith Martin: 3 Classic First Ladies

Judith Martin

Rose Cleveland. (She doesn’t seem to have made the list, but she did the First Lady bit before her brother made his Gilbert & Sullivan marriage to his ward.) Because she was an intellectual, an educator and editor, and her book George Eliot’s Poetry and Other Studies, contains some nice philosophical thoughts about manners. 

Edith Wilson. Because she managed to run the country fairly discreetly (everybody guessed, but they couldn’t pin it on her) when her husband was too ill.

Lady Bird Johnson. Because of her version of the adoring-wife-next-to-podium look, which clearly telegraphed, "Shut up, Lyndon, you’re making a fool of yourself," and brought him to a sometimes abrupt, but always speedy, conclusion.

 

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gulliver fourmyle
well, IMHO, ya ‘beat-up’ on the younger ladies—-the essence of ‘Class’—-would we 30 years younger? i’d grab ya—-but i do feel including Lady-Bird perhaps unwise—-LBJ was ‘bonkers’ on The Nam—-rather than sit-back and watch his absurd ‘commie’ fears, which simply slaughtered millions—-i feel she should have become ‘Lysistrata’ and stopped him, so he could concentrate on his ‘War-On-Poverty’—-his Great goal—-sadly obscured—-and why would you neglect Elanor?
By gulliver fourmyle on 11/24/2008 10:58 pm