Four First Ladies came to Houston on Saturday to honor Barbara Bush: Melania Trump, Michelle Obama, daughter-in-law Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton. Rosalynn Carter, 90, is recovering from surgery and was unable to attend.
A lot about being a first lady is unofficial. The title is invented, the job unpaid and the mandate unclear: Be fashionable but not flashy; be involved but not interfering. Pick a cause, make a mark — but not too much of a mark.
First lady Melania Trump attended Barbara Bush’s funeral on Saturday in Houston, participating in another of these informal traditions: A delegation of first ladies, both present and past, has attended every funeral of another first lady since the 1960s.
Legend has it that President Zachary Taylor may have coined the term “first lady” at the funeral of Dolley Madison in 1849, according to the National First Ladies’ Library. However, no records of his eulogy exist to prove this claim.
During the presidency of her husband, James Madison, Madison performed the hostessing and philanthropic duties associated with a president’s spouse and may or may not have saved George Washington’s portrait from British torches during the War of 1812. It’s likely that Taylor’s wife, Peggy, and John Quincy Adams’s spouse, Louisa Adams, also attended her funeral. But while Madison’s death garnered attention, it didn’t take on the quasi-state funeral air of later years.
(No first lady has ever been given an official state funeral. They’re generally accorded the same courtesies as military family members at Arlington National Cemetery, meaning family can request military body bearers and a military chaplain, according to the Defense Department.)
President Theodore Roosevelt, however, did, suggesting “a growing respect for the status of presidential spouse,” according to the National First Ladies’ Library.
Then came the funeral of the longest-serving and, arguably, one of the most powerful first ladies in history, Eleanor Roosevelt. When she died in 1962, President John F. Kennedy ordered all flags flown at half-staff, the first time this honor had been given to a first lady. He also flew to New York for the funeral, along with other world leaders and, notably, a group of first ladies: Jacqueline Kennedy, Bess Truman and future first lady Lady Bird Johnson.
In 1979, Pat Nixon joined her husband at the funeral of Mamie Eisenhower. But first lady Rosalynn Carter also attended, solo, despite having only met Mamie Eisenhower once. It’s Carter’s apparent gesture of solidarity that seems to have codified the convention, according to the library.
A few years later, Rosalynn Carter attended the funeral of Bess Truman, along with Nancy Reagan and Betty Ford.
Pat Nixon’s 1993 first lady funeral delegation fell along party lines (only fellow GOP first ladies Ford and Reagan attended), though probably by accident.
Jacqueline Kennedy had requested a small, family-oriented service, but in 1994, Lady Bird Johnson and Hillary Clinton still made the cut.
Five first ladies attended Lady Bird Johnson’s funeral in 2007.
Four each went to Betty Ford’s and Nancy Reagan’s.
(Barbara Bush missed Reagan’s funeral but attended the burial.)
A salute to our First Ladies…Past & Present…You have served your country well.
By Barbara KisKis
April 22, 2018
( A special thank you to The Washington Post for some of the information.)
“I don’t think this is a good day to have tea outside.”
Crystal was driven to Suzanne’s Villa in the late afternoon. It was a pleasant ride and it gave Crystal a chance to view Rio for the first time. She liked what she saw. The people were friendly and but spoke Portuguese; Crystal was not familiar with the language, so she just smiled.
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