Mamie Eisenhower

Mamie Eisenhower
File:Mamie Eisenhower color photo portrait, White House, May 1954.jpg
First Lady of the United States
In role January 20, 1953 – January 20, 1961
President	Dwight Eisenhower
Preceded by	Bess Truman
Succeeded by	Jackie Kennedy
Personal details
Born	Mamie Geneva Doud (1896-11-14)November 14, 1896 Boone, Iowa, U.S.
Died	Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Dwight Eisenhower (1916–1969)
Children	Doud "Icky" John
Religion	Presbyterianism
Signature

Mamie Geneva Doud Eisenhower (November 14, 1896 – November 1, 1979) was the wife of United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and First Lady of the United States from 1953 to 1961.

Mamie married Dwight Eisenhower at age 19 in 1916. The young couple moved frequently between military quarters in many postings, from Panama to the Philippines. As First Lady, she entertained a wide range of foreign dignitaries, who reacted well to her confident style and splendid costumes.

Mamie Eisenhower spent her retirement and widowhood at the family farm at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Early life

Birthplace of First Lady Mamie Doud Eisenhower, 709 (formerly 718) Carroll Street, Boone, Iowa

Mamie at 17

Born in Boone, Iowa and named, in part, after the popular song Lovely Lake Geneva, Mamie Geneva Doud was the second child born to John Sheldon Doud, a meatpacking executive, and his wife, the former Elivera Mathilde Carlson. She grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Denver, Colorado, and the Doud winter home in San Antonio, Texas. Her father, who retired at age 36, ran a meatpacking company founded by his father, Doud & Montgomery ("Buyers of Live Hogs"), and had investments in Illinois and Iowa stockyards. Her mother was a daughter of Swedish immigrants. She had three sisters: Eleanor Carlson Doud, Eda Mae Doud, and Mabel Frances "Mike" Doud.

Marriage and family

Soon after completing her education at Miss Wolcott's, a finishing school, she met Dwight Eisenhower at San Antonio in October 1915. Introduced by Mrs. Lulu Harris, wife of a fellow officer at Fort Sam Houston, the two hit it off at once, as Eisenhower, officer of the day, invited Miss Doud to accompany him on his rounds. On St. Valentine's Day in 1916, he gave her a miniature of his West Point class ring to seal a formal engagement.

The Doud House at 750 Lafayette Street in Denver, Colorado

Lieutenant Dwight D. Eisenhower, aged 25, married Mamie Doud, aged 19, on July 1, 1916, at the home of the bride's parents in Denver, Colorado. Following the wedding, performed by Reverend Williamson of the Central Presbyterian Church in Denver, the newlyweds honeymooned a few days at Eldorado Springs, Colorado, a resort near Denver, and then visited the groom's parents in Abilene before settling into the lieutenant's living quarters at Fort Sam Houston.

The Eisenhowers had two children (only one lived to adulthood):

• Doud Dwight "Icky" (September 24, 1917 – January 2, 1921) died of scarlet fever.
• John Sheldon Doud (August 3, 1922 – December 21, 2013) – soldier, diplomat, author – was born in Denver, Colorado; he graduated from West Point in 1944 and earned a master's degree in English literature from Columbia University in 1950. After retiring from a military career (1944–1963), he was appointed ambassador to Belgium (1969–1971) by Richard Nixon. He authored ten books, among them an account of the Battle of the Bulge: The Bitter Woods (1969); Strictly Personal (1974); and Allies: Pearl Harbor to D-Day (1982).

For years, Mamie Eisenhower's life followed the pattern of other Army wives: a succession of posts in the United States, in the Panama Canal Zone; duty in France, and in the Philippine Islands. Although accustomed to more creature comforts than those afforded at military posts, Mamie adjusted readily and joined her husband in moving 28 times before their retirement at the end of his term as president.

Mamie Eisenhower, with her husband, Dwight, on the steps of St. Mary's College, San Antonio, Texas, in 1916

During the Second World War, while promotion and fame came to "Ike", his wife lived in Washington, D.C. After he became president of Columbia University in 1948, the Eisenhowers purchased a farm (now the Eisenhower National Historic Site) at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was the first home they had ever owned. His duties as commander of North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces—and hers as his hostess at a villa near Paris—delayed work on their dream home, finally completed in 1955.

First Lady of the United States

Mamie Eisenhower in her inaugural gown, painted in 1953 by Thomas Stevens

They celebrated with a housewarming picnic for the staff at what would be their last temporary quarters: the White House. Diplomacy—and air travel—in the postwar world brought changes in their official hospitality. The Eisenhowers entertained an unprecedented number of heads of state and leaders of foreign governments. As First Lady, she was noted for her outgoing manner, her love of pretty clothes, some of them designed by Scaasi, jewelry, and her obvious pride in husband and home. The gown she wore to her husband's inauguration is one of the most popular in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History's collection of inaugural gowns. Eisenhower's affinity for the color pink led to the color's public association with femininity.

As First Lady, she was a gracious hostess but carefully guarded her privacy. A victim of Ménière's disease, an inner-ear disorder that affects equilibrium, Eisenhower was uneasy on her feet, which fed rumors that she had a drinking problem.

Eisenhower was known as a penny pincher who clipped coupons for the White House staff. Her recipe for "Mamie's million dollar fudge" was reproduced by housewives all over the country after it was printed in many publications.

As described in multiple biographies, including Upstairs at the White House by J. B. West, Eisenhower was reportedly unhappy with the idea of John F. Kennedy coming into office following her husband's term. Despite new First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy having given birth to her son John Jr. via caesarean section two weeks prior, Eisenhower did not inform Kennedy that there was a wheelchair available for her to use while showing her the various sections of the White House. Seeing Eisenhower's displeasure during the tour, Kennedy kept her composure while in Eisenhower's presence, finally collapsing in private once the new First Lady returned home. When Mamie Eisenhower was later questioned as to why she would do such a thing, the former First Lady simply stated, "Because she never asked."

Later life

Mamie Eisenhower portrait, April 27, 1971

In 1961, Eisenhower retired with the former president to Gettysburg, their first permanent home. They also had a retirement home in Palm Desert, California. After her husband's death in 1969, she continued to live full-time on the farm until she took an apartment in Washington, D.C., in the late 1970s. She appeared in a campaign commercial for her husband's former Vice President Richard Nixon in 1972.

Eisenhower suffered a stroke on September 25, 1979. She was rushed to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where her husband had died a decade before. Eisenhower remained in the hospital, and on October 31, announced to her granddaughter Mary Jean that she would die the next day. She died in her sleep very early the morning of November 1, less than two weeks shy of her 83rd birthday. She was buried next to the president and her first son at Place of Meditation on the grounds of the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas. In 1980, her birthplace in Boone, Iowa, was dedicated as a historic site; Abigail Adams is the only other First Lady to be so honored. One of the east-west streets in Boone (Fourth Street) is now called Mamie Eisenhower Avenue.

Because of her connection with the city of Denver and the area surrounding, a park in southeast Denver was given Mamie's name, as well as a public library in Broomfield, Colorado, a suburb of Denver.

Further reading

• Eisenhower, Susan. Mrs. Ike: Memories and Reflections on the Life of Mamie Eisenhower. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996. ISBN 0374215146 OCLC 35025750
• Holt, Marilyn Irvin. Mamie Doud Eisenhower: The General's First Lady. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2007. ISBN 9780700615391 OCLC 128236450
• Kimball, D. L. I Remember Mamie. Fayette, IA: Trends & Events, 1981. ISBN 0942698002 OCLC 8228995

External links

• Mamie Doud Eisenhower, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
• Papers of Mamie Doud Eisenhower, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
• Mamie Eisenhower at the Internet Movie Database
• Mamie Eisenhower Letters at Gettysburg College
• Mamie Doud Eisenhower Birthplace, historic house museum in Boone, Iowa
• Papers of Mary Jane McCaffree (Social Secretary to Mamie Eisenhower), Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
• Papers of Dr. Wallace Sullivan regarding Mamie Eisenhower's medical history, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
• Mamie's Million Dollar Fudge Recipe, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
• Mamie Eisenhower at Find a Grave
• Mamie Eisenhower at C-SPAN's First Ladies: Influence & Image

Honorary titles
Preceded by Bess Truman	First Lady of the United States 1953–1961	Succeeded by Jackie Kennedy