First Women: The Grace and Power of America's Modern First Ladies (50 page)

Pat Nixon takes her East Wing staff on a trip to Mount Vernon aboard the presidential yacht, the
Sequoia
.

Pat Nixon’s 1973 surprise birthday party in the White House movie theater. Pat sits casually on the floor with her social secretary, Lucy Winchester, on the right and her director of correspondence, Gwen King, seated, wearing green.

Pat kisses Betty Ford, who would suddenly succeed her as first lady after President Nixon resigned. “My heavens, they’ve even rolled out the red carpet for us, isn’t that something,” a bitter Pat told Betty. “You’ll see so many of those. . . . You’ll get so you hate them.”

First Lady Betty Ford gives a tour of the Fords’ bedroom to Lady Bird Johnson and her family the day before she had a mastectomy. Not wanting to ruin their visit, she never told Lady Bird about the surgery. The only clue is the black suitcase at the foot of the bed that Betty had packed for the hospital.

The day before she left the White House, Betty Ford used her training as a Martha Graham dancer to jump up on the Cabinet Room table, where seats were often reserved for men only. A Ford family friend says President Ford “about fell off his chair” when he saw the photo for the first time.

Rosalynn Carter hugs her husband, Jimmy, on election night, November 2, 1976.

The Carters have their weekly lunch in the Oval Office. “Whatever secrets there were,” Carter’s vice president, Walter Mondale, said, “she knew about all of them.”

Lady Bird Johnson, who outlived her husband by thirty-four years, was the grande dame of the first ladies. She forged deep and lasting friendships with other first ladies, including Barbara Bush, with whom she is laughing at the 1981 dedication of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, and with Hillary Clinton, whose husband she would later call upon for a political favor.

Rosalynn Carter, Lady Bird Johnson, and Betty Ford sat on rocking chairs at Lady Bird’s Texas ranch in 1987. The unexpected sight of three former first ladies thrilled tourists driving by. “I have never seen so many camera lenses; it was just like a sea of windows filled with black circles,” said an aide to Lady Bird. Lady Bird and Betty were so close that Lady Bird kept a small framed photo of Betty in her bedroom until her death.

The Reagans kissing under the mistletoe in 1987. These women are their husbands’ greatest confidantes and their fiercest protectors. “My life began with Ronnie,” Nancy said.

Barbara Bush’s husband served as vice president to Ronald Reagan for eight years, but she was rarely invited to the private living quarters of the White House. When a scathing biography of Nancy Reagan was published, Barbara quickly snapped it up and slapped another book jacket on it so that no one would know what she was reading.

Hillary Clinton is the only first lady to run for office herself. Before then she was completely devoted to her husband’s political career, yelling, “Give me a break!” during a press conference held by one of his opponents when Clinton was running for his fifth term as governor of Arkansas. Here she campaigns for her husband ahead of the 1992 presidential election.

First Lady Barbara Bush
(left)
welcomes her successor, Hillary Clinton, for a tour of the White House on November 19, 1992. Barbara would never forgive Hillary for deeply personal attacks made during the campaign against her husband, President George H. W. Bush.

From left to right:
Ted Kennedy (standing), Jackie Kennedy (wearing a striped shirt and sunglasses), Hillary Clinton (in a straw hat and sunglasses), and Bill Clinton on a cruise along the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in August 1993. Hillary idolized Jackie and asked her for advice on raising children in the White House. Jackie told her, “You’re going to have to put your foot down.”

Six first ladies gathered to raise funds for the National Botanical Garden in May 1994.
From left to right:
Nancy Reagan, Lady Bird Johnson, Hillary Clinton, Rosalynn Carter, Betty Ford, and Barbara Bush.

From left to right:
Rosalynn Carter, Hillary Clinton, Betty Ford, Barbara Bush, Nancy Reagan, and Lady Bird Johnson at the dedication of the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library on November 6, 1997, in College Station, Texas.

Former White House Head Butler George Hannie remembers how quiet Hillary Clinton was when she was consumed with worry about the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Here Hillary watches as her husband speaks on the day the House of Representatives voted to impeach him on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

At the end of Lady Bird Johnson’s 2007 funeral, the University of Texas band played their school spirit song, “The Eyes of Texas,” and native Texan and UT alumna Laura Bush gave the “Hook ’em Horns” sign. Laura’s mother-in-law, former First Lady Barbara Bush, smiles along with Susan Ford
(right)
. Caroline Kennedy, head bowed, stands to the left of Barbara Bush.
Front row, from left to right:
Nancy Reagan, Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter, Laura Bush, and Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Laura Bush, a Republican, and Michelle Obama, a Democrat, are closer than Michelle is with Hillary Clinton. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Laura defended Michelle when she came under criticism, and the two have since praised each other’s work as first ladies.

Hillary, then secretary of state, talks with Michelle Obama at an awards ceremony at the State Department in 2010. The two are not close, in part because of bad blood left over from the bruising 2008 Democratic primaries, but also because they are fundamentally very different women.