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First Family Life

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First Children

What was it like to grow up in a home where some of the most important political decisions are being made at the same time as you are trying to pass your driver's license exam? We all remember our childhood firsts, but for most of us, these quintessential memories did not take place in one of the country's most famous

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Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day": Family Life

Family life in the Roosevelt White House was lively and often hectic. In 1933, when FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt (ER) moved into the White House, the two youngest Roosevelt sons, Franklin, Jr. (1914-1988) and John (1916-1981) were still in college. The three eldest children Anna, (1906-1975) James (1907-1991) and Elliott (1910-1990) were married and had started families of their own. (A

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Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day": Christmas

The Roosevelts celebrated Christmas with a flurry of public and private activities. The non-stop action began the week before Christmas as children, grandchildren and other family members began arriving at the White House. "I think this old house likes the sound of children's voices," Eleanor Roosevelt (ER) wrote in one of her December columns. "It certainly is an ideal place

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Theodore Roosevelt Family's Horses

Theodore Roosevelt's love of fine horses was legendary and played a part in shaping his vigorous personal image and his advocacy of the "strenuous life." Roosevelt had been a rancher in the Dakota Territory, and his volunteer-mounted "Rough Riders" emerged as national heroes after the famous charge at San Juan Hill during the Spanish American War. After the assassination of

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The White House and Lincoln's Assassination

Abraham Lincoln had never been more William Tecumseh Sherman’s thrust through the cheerful and carefree in the White House than on his last day alive. Richmond, the Confederate capital, had recently fallen, and it was only five days since Washingtonians had celebrated the deliriously exciting news of Robert E. Lee’s surrender to the Union victor, Ulysses S. Grant. The

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The White House Chefs and the Nixon-Cox Wedding Cake

In March 1971, President Richard M. Nixon announced the engagement of his daughter Patricia to Edward Cox. The details of the wedding preparations soon appeared in newspapers. As the June date drew closer, media attention began to focus on the wedding cake. White House Chef Henry Haller and his colleagues, White House Pastry Chef Heinz Bender and New York pastry specialist