The Health of the First Ladies: Medical Histories from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama (47 page)

22.
Edelson, ed.: “Stroke Risk in Women Smokers Goes Up by Each Cigarette,” http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/heart/article/2008/08/14/stroke-risk-in-women-smokers (8 September 2012); Philip A. Wolf, Ralph B. D’Agostino, et al., “Cigarette Smoking as a Risk Factor for Stroke,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
259, no. 7 (1988): 1025–1029; Graham A. Colditz, Ruth Bonita, et al., “Cigarette Smoking and Risk of Stroke in Middle-Aged Women,”
New England Journal of Medicine
318 (April 14, 1988): 937–941.

23.
Anthony, 258–260, 262.

24.
William Taft to Robert Taft, May 18, 1909, “Physicians in William Howard Taft’s Life,” http:///www.apneos.com/physicians.html (accessed September 8, 2012).

25.
“Mrs. Taft’s Illness Due to Social Causes,”
New York Times
, May 19, 1909; Gould, 50–51; Anthony, 261.

26.
“Mrs. Taft Can’t Meet Guests,”
New York Times
, May 22, 1909; “Mrs. Taft Still Ill; Not At Garden Party,”
New York Times
, May 29, 1909.

27.
Anthony, 267; Gould, 53.

28.
Anthony, 263; Gould, 53.

29.
A. McGehee Harvey, Gert H. Brieger, Susan L. Abrams and Victor A. McKusick:
A Model of Its Kind
:
A Centennial History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins,
vol. 1 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989), 44; William H. Taft to Helen Herron Taft, October 31, 1909, “Physicians in William Howard Taft’s Life,” http:///www.apneos.com/physicians.html (accessed September 8, 2012).

30.
Anthony, 275–6.

31.
Gould, 63: “she made remarkable progress in the preceding two months”; Anthony, 294, 297.

32.
“Apraxia of speech,” National Institute on Deafness and Other Communicative Disorders, http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/pages/apraxia.aspx (accessed November 23, 2013).

33.
Anthony, 304: Daughter Helen’s quote; Gould, 123–4; “Mrs. Taft Ill Here, President with Her,”
New York Times
, May 15, 1911.

34.
Gould, 123–4; “Mrs. Taft Will Rest,”
New York Times
, May 20, 1911.

35.
Gould, 133, 136: Tafts’ twenty-fifth wedding anniversary celebration; Anthony, 346: 1912 Democrat National Convention.

36.
Anderson, 167: “During Nellie’s Illness Taft Was a Somber and Stricken Man”; Anthony, 264.

37.
Anthony, 279.

38.
Gould, 51.

39.
Anderson, 162.

40.
Gould, 154.

41.
Anthony, 398–9.

42.
Gould, 52; Anthony, 385: quote regarding self-control of stress.

43.
Anthony, 385.

44.
Anthony, 402, 404. There are suggestions, unconfirmed and medically undocumented, that Nellie Taft had other attacks. In a letter from William Taft to his son Robert at the time of the 1909 stroke, Taft said, “You know she has had these attacks which seem to proceed from nervous exhaustion, and in which her heart functionates [
sic
] very feebly. It is not an organic trouble of the heart, but it seems to be some nervous affection” (Anthony, 262), and “Henry Adams learned from the widow of John Hay that Mrs. Taft’s attack in May 1909 was the ‘third time she has had something of the kind’” (Gould, 49).

45.
Anthony, 408–410; “Mrs. W.H. Taft Dies, President’s Widow,”
New York Times
, May 22, 1943.

46.
New York Times
, May 22, 1943; “General Delaney Dies, Physician to Taft,”
Wilkes-Barre (PA) Record
, November 13, 1936.

47.
John C. Lungren and John C. Lungren Jr.,
Healing Richard Nixon
(Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2003), 162.

48.
Paul F. Boller,
Presidential Wives: An Anecdotal History
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 397; Watson,
The Presidents’ Wives
, 79.

49.
William Safire, “Political Spouse,”
New York Times
, June 24, 1993; Donnie Radcliffe, “Appreciation: Pat Nixon; Cloth Coat, Ironclad Devotion,”
Washington Post
, June 23, 1993.

50.
Julie Nixon Eisenhower,
Pat Nixon: The Untold Story
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986), 17–55; Mary C. Brennan,
Pat Nixon. Embattled First Lady
(Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2011), 1–14.

51.
Eisenhower, 171; Brennan, 71.

52.
Brennan, 163: “on several occasions, she even smoked in public”; 173: her answers to reporters were false; Robert B. Semple Jr., “A Stoic Pat Nixon Is Recalled by Aide,”
New York Times,
August 14, 1976.

53.
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein,
The Final Days
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1976), 32, 164–6, 243–4, 346.

54.
Eisenhower, 447–453.

55.
Lungren, 159; Jack Jones, “Pat Nixon’s Doctors Optimistic,”
Los Angeles Times,
July 9, 1976.

56.
Lungren, 162; “Therapy Expert Aids Mrs. Nixon,”
Los Angeles Times
, July 15, 1976; “Pat Leaves Hospital, Says She ‘Feels Fine,’”
Los Angeles Times
, July 23, 1976; Eisenhower, 447–453.

57.
Jon Nordheimer, “Doctors Say Mrs. Nixon Is Showing Improvement,”
New York Times
, July 10, 1976.

58.
“Pat Reading ‘That’ on the Day of Stroke,”
Chicago Tribune
, August 9, 1976.

59.
“Standing by for Mrs. Nixon,” editorial,
Chicago Tribune
, July 10, 1976.

60.
Lungren, 162.

61.
Brennan, 175; “Pat Nixon Suffers Stroke, Spends 5 Days in Hospital,”
Los Angeles Times
, August 22, 1983; “Pat Nixon Returns Home After Stroke,”
Los Angeles Times
, August 23, 1983.

62.
Brennan, 176; “Pat Nixon, Former First Lady, Dies at 81,”
New York Times
, June 23, 1993.

1.
“Mrs. Wilson Dies in the White House,”
Los Angeles Times
, August 7, 1914; “Mrs. Wilson Dies in White House,”
New York Times
, August 7, 1914.

2.
August Heckscher,
Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
(New York: Macmillan, 1991), 280–1.

3.
Kendrick A. Clements,
Woodrow Wilson: World Statesman
(Boston: Twayne, 1987), 97.

4.
Heckscher, 289–1.

5.
Eleanor Wilson McAdoo,
The Woodrow Wilsons
(New York: Macmillan, 1937), 229–230.

6.
Sina Dubovoy,
Ellen A. Wilson: The Woman Who Made a President
(New York: Nova History, 2003), 248; Roberts,
Rating the First Ladies
, 197: “There were five hundred guests at the ceremony.

7.
Dubovoy, 228, and Edwin A. Weinstein,
Woodrow Wilson: A Medical and Psychological Biography
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), 254: cancellation of the inaugural ball; Heckscher, 333: Jesse’s wedding.

8.
Dubovoy, 234–5, and Clements, 97: Ellen Wilson’s cause was the Alley slums in Washington; McAdoo, 235–6: “often taking groups of Congressmen with her”; Francis Wright Saunders,
Ellen Axson Wilson: First Lady Between Two Worlds
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985), 248: illness forced her to abandon her crusade; McAdoo, 236: passage of the Alley Clearing bill.

9.
Watson,
The Presidents’ Wives
, 140, 143, 189.

10.
Roberts, xxiii–xxiv.

11.
Craig Hart,
A Genealogy of the Wives of American Presidents and Their First Two Generations of Descent
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2004), 244.

12.
Saunders, 67; letters from cousin Mary E. Hoyt (Rome, Georgia) to Ellen A. Wilson (Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania): “very unwell” October 9, 1885; “are so sick,” November 7, 1885. Her aunt Louise sympathized: “been so sick”; Louisa Hoyt Brown (Gainesville, Georgia), letter to Ellen Axson Wilson (Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania), November 20, 1885.

13.
Dubovoy, 69.

14.
Eleanor Wilson McAdoo,
The Priceless Gift: The Love Letters of Woodrow Wilson and Ellen Axson Wilson
(Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1962), 148.

15.
Dubovoy, 72–4; Heckscher, 85–6.

16.
James W. Bailey, Obituary,
Journal of the American Medical Association
54, no. 15 (April 9, 1910): 1229.

17.
Louisa Hoyt Brown (Gainesville, Georgia), letters to Woodrow Wilson (Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania), April 16, 17, 1886.

18.
McAdoo,
The Priceless Gift
, 155.

19.
Leon C. Chesley, “The Origin of the Word ‘Eclampsia,’”
Obstetrics and Gynecology
39, no. 5 (May 1972): 802–4: “Toxemia: Pre-eclampsia and Hypertension in Pregnancy,” http://www.pregnancycrawler.com/toxemia.html (June 8, 2012; Howard Lein, personal correspondence, November 18, 2009; Bjorn Egil Vikse, Lorentz M. Irgens, et al.: “Preeclampsia and the Risk of End-Stage Renal Disease”;
New England Journal of Medicine
359 (2008): 800–9: all references for eyelid edema; George Howe, letter to Ellen Axson Wilson (Gainesville, Georgia), May 2, 1886.

20.
Edwin A. Weinstein,
Woodrow Wilson
, 86: Travel to Georgia for her second delivery; Dubovoy, 78, and the following letters for Ellen’s distress: Mary E. Hoyt (Rome, Georgia), letters to Ellen A. Wilson (Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania), February 23, 1887, March 13, 1887: “you are suffering so”; Ellen Axson (Savannah, Georgia), letter to Ellen Axson Wilson (Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania), April 1, 1887: “were sick again”; Mary E. Hoyt (Rome, Georgia), letter to Woodrow Wilson (Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania), August 30, 1887: “I knew Ellen had been very unwell during the summer”; McAdoo:
The Priceless Gift
, 160: for Aunt Louise’s postpartum care.

21.
Saunders, 78; Heckscher, 93.

22.
Saunders, 78.

23.
Ibid.

24.
Ibid., 80; Weinstein, 98–9; Dubovoy, 82–4.

25.
Saunders, 80.

26.
Dubovoy, 82–4; Anne Taylor Kirschmann,
A Vital Force: Women in American Homeopathy
(New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004), 33, 123;
Taft, Florence: Puerperal Eclampsia: Proceedings of the Annual Session of the International Hahnemannian Association
(1895): 279–288.

27.
“Toxemia: Pre-eclampsia and Hypertension in Pregnancy,” http://www.pregnancycrawler.com/toxemia.html (June 8, 2012); Chesley, “The Origin of the Word ‘Eclampsia,’” 802–4.

28.
Saunders, 107, 115–6, 119; Dubovoy, 101; Weinstein, 150; Stockton Axson to Ellen Axson Wilson, letter November 7, 1897: “When I learned from Dr. Van Valzah that you had been at his office yesterday … I am glad to hear from the doctor that you and Brother Woodrow are both doing nicely in health.” “Mrs. Wilson Dies in White House,”
New York Times
, August 7, 1914: “Edward Parke Davis of Philadelphia, who had attended the Pres. and Mrs. Davis while they were residents of Philadelphia.”

29.
Weinstein, 149.

30.
Van Valzah,
Directory of Deceased Physicians, 1804–1929
, vol. 2 (Chicago: American Medical Association, 1993), 1582; “Van Valzah Renounces Allopathy,”
New York Times
, November 29, 1882; Van Valzah.

31.
Eleanor Wilson McAdoo,
The Woodrow Wilsons
(New York: Macmillan, 1937), 56.

32.
Saunders, 157: “Health-Wise She Never Felt Better”; Saunders, 174; Weinstein, 164.

33.
Saunders, 254: “mother was less animated”; Dubovoy, 211, 216: “that something was very wrong with Ellen”; Saunders, 225: “walking slowly and wearily.”

34.
Lein, personal communication; Bjorn Egil Vikse, Lorentz M. Irgens, et al.: “Preeclampsia and the Risk of End-Stage Renal Disease,”
New England Journal of Medicine
359 (2008): 800–9; Weinstein, 254: Colonel House’s comment; Dubovoy, 228: cancellation of the inaugural ball.

35.
Deppisch,
The White House Physician
, 90–1.

36.
Cary Grayson,
Woodrow Wilson: An Intimate Memoir
, 2d ed. (Washington: Potomac, 1960), ix, lists this date; McAdoo:
The Woodrow Wilsons
, 210–211. Daughter Eleanor also claims that the Wilsons met Grayson for the first time at tea with the Tafts the day before Wilson’s inauguration. Grayson had taken care of Aunt Annie; Weinstein, 250; Grayson, 1–2; Gene Smith,
When the Cheering Stopped: The Last Years of Woodrow Wilson
(New York: William Morrow, 1964), 5; McAdoo, 210–11: all record the medical attention provided to Aunt Annie Howe, although the date of the event, either the day before or the day of the inauguration, is not uniformly stated; Grayson, 1, called the circumstances of his attendance upon Wilson’s aunt “providential”; Grayson, 1–2, describes his official appointment; Grayson, 1–2, and Smith, 7, describe Ellen’s involvement in Grayson’s appointment; Weinstein, 250, states that Grayson was recommended by outgoing President Taft.

37.
Dubovoy, 236:
“
It escaped no one’s notice … that Ellen was taxing her strength to the limit”; “Mrs. Wilson Needs Rest,”
New York Times
, June 21, 1913.

38.
Saunders, 262; Weinstein, 254–5.

39.
Saunders, 262: being tired with the necessity of rest breaks; Dubovoy, 249: lost weight; McAdoo,
The Priceless Gift
, 314: “lovely color in her cheeks disappeared.”

40.
Weinstein, 255: “a triad of symptoms typical of chronic nephritis”; Saunders, 270–1; Dubovoy, 253–4.

41.
Edward Parker Davis,
The Man and the Hour
(privately published, 1919), was a slim volume of poems dedicated to Woodrow Wilson; “Mrs. Wilson Dies in White House,”
New York Times
, August 7, 1914: “who had attended the President and Mrs. Wilson while they were residents of Princeton”; Davis to Grayson, July 22, 1913: “I think your present program is an excellent one.” Edward P. Davis to Dr. Cary T. Grayson, February 12, February 24, April 7, 1914;
Medical and Surgical Register of the United States and Canada
(Detroit: R.L. Polk, 1917), 1388–9, and Pascal Brooke Bland, “Edward Parker Davis,” in Jefferson Medical College Yearbook, 1937. After his Princeton graduation, Davis’s academic journey took a peculiar route: graduation from two medical schools, Rush Medical College in 1882 and Jefferson Medical College in 1888. He became chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Jefferson in 1898 and remained in that position until his retirement in 1925. Davis authored several standard textbooks, including
A Treatise on Obstetrics for Students and Practitioners
, and was a special representative of the United States to the 1910 meeting of the International Obstetrical and Gynecological Society in Saint Petersburg, Russia.