Ellen and Edith: Woodrow Wilson's First Ladies

7. The Widow

c h a p t e r s e v e n 242 } { Woodrow Wilson now belonged to history. Edith Wilson was determined to shape that history. She had been Wilson’s confidante and partner for four and a half exhilarating, triumphant years. She had been spokeswoman, companion, and nurse to an invalid for nearly as long. For the next thirty-seven years, she would devote her considerable energies to burnishing her husband’s legacy: shaping his image, revising and even censoring unflattering portrayals; representing him at events; and supporting memorials that celebrated his accomplishments. In this regard, Edith falls in the middle of the range of former first ladies. Some, like Frances (Cleveland) Preston and Jacqueline (Kennedy) Onassis, abandoned the role of first lady after the death of the president. Others, like Eleanor Roosevelt, moved beyond the traditional role as first lady to expand her husband’s agenda. Edith continued to do what she had done as first lady: to promote, discreetly, her husband’s objectives; to pursue her work with the Red Cross, begun in 1917 when she was still in the White House; and to attend social events as the widow of a president. Doubtless she realized that maintaining her status as a former first lady would help her be more effective in promoting her husband’s legacy. And effective she would be, helping to restore Woodrow Wilson ’s popularity. Although she remained focused on these larger objectives , Edith strove to preserve balance in her life, enjoying vacaTHE WIDOW tions and social events that were not directly related to honoring Wilson. That first year—1924—set the pattern for the years to come. Edith’s role as former first lady was recognized within days of Wilson ’s funeral. An article in the Atlanta Constitution of February 17 commended her for standing up to “Argus-eyed” scrutiny with “strength and dignity.” The author was impressed that Edith “never by word nor gesture deflected attention to herself.” When Wilson died, it would have been easy for her to “have stepped before the footlights . . . to have spoken of her feelings and her experiences,”but she modestly kept silent. The article concluded: “When history shall finally accord Woodrow Wilson his high seat among the mighty . . . it will be remembered that Mrs. Wilson in life was ever by his side.”1 However, when her two goals—promoting Woodrow’s legacy and presenting a dignified image—conflicted, promoting Wilson’s legacy won out. She demonstrated this almost at once. The day after Wilson’s death, a Baltimore doctor, Vladimir M. Fortunato, made a death mask of Wilson’s face. He intended to make a plaster bust, but his proposal ultimately was not acceptable to Edith. Eventually, after much legal wrangling, she paid a substantial amount for him to destroy the original mask. She also stipulated that he could not publish their correspondence.2 Over the years, she would continue to exercise control over any works of art depicting her husband.3 Edith took the high road, however, when the German embassy refused to fly its flag at half-mast after Woodrow Wilson’s death. The chairman of the American Committee for the Relief of German Children wrote her that the incident had “alienated numbers of workers and donors . . . threatening the success of the campaign.” Edith at once publicly expressed her hope that the fund “may continue to find generous support,” asserting that her husband would have felt the same way.4 Edith’s greatest influence was over the way her husband would be portrayed in print. Ray Stannard Baker had approached Woodrow Wilson less than a month before he died about writing a biography, but Wilson had discouraged him, saying that his papers were “so scattered” that he feared the task would be “next to impossible.” He warned of “making too much of a single man” instead of the “great general cause”that they all supported. Wilson also feared that his biThe Widow 243 } { ography might draw “prejudice and animosity” that would be hard to dispel.5 Baker was undeterred. Less than a week after Wilson’s death, Baker wrote to Dr. Cary Grayson, asking him to lobby Mrs. Wilson on his behalf. “Someone, sooner or later, is going to write the authentic life,”he argued. “I am fearful lest someone who does not understand will become the appointed interpreter.”Baker believed that he was...