The Health of the First Ladies: Medical Histories from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama

by Deppisch, Ludwig M. , M. D.

  5. Deppisch, The White House Physician, 78.

  6. Deppisch, “Homeopathic Medicine.”

  7. Ibid.

  8. Anthony, 64, 516–18, 522.

  9. Ibid., 55.

  10. John J. Bell, “Nephroptosis: Its Causation, Symptoms and Radical Cure,” British Medical Journal (May 26, 1923): 889–892; Douglas L. McWhinnie and David N.H. Hamilton: “The Rise and Fall of Surgery for the ‘Floating’ Kidney,” British Medical Journal 288 (March 17, 1984): 845–7.

  11. Anthony, 79–80.

  12. “Mrs. Harding Worse; Recovery Not Sure; Specialists Called,” New York Times, September 8, 1922; George Paulson, James Fairchild Baldwin, MD (1850–1930): An Extraordinary Surgeon, House Call, Medical Heritage Center, at Ohio State University 9 no. 1 (Fall 1905), 1–2.

  13. Anthony, 86.

  14. Ibid., 103.

  15. Stuart J. Koblentz, “The Sawyers in Marion,” 59–72, in Marion (Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2004), for White Oaks description; Anthony, 102: “rigorous outdoor exercise, light therapy, hydrotherapy, massage and electrotherapy.”

  16. Anthony, 103; Carl Sawyer, Polk’s Medical Registry and Directory, 1917; Sawyer, Carl, Obituary, Journal of the American Medical Association 196, no. 3 (June 27, 1966): 154.

  17. Anthony, 107; Francis Russell, The Shadow of Blooming Grove: Warren G. Harding in His Times (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968), 237.

  18. Anthony, 115; “Mrs. Harding Worse; Recovery Not Sure; Specialists Called,” New York Times, September 8, 1922.

  19. Anthony, 119–121.

  20. Ibid., 154; Russell, 310; Bernard Lauriston Hardin, Obituary, Journal of the American Medical Association 107, no. 2 (July 11, 1936), 145; B.L. Hardin to Florence Harding, December 11, 1922; B.L. Hardin to Florence Harding, undated.

  21. Deppisch: The White House Physician, 83.

  22. Anthony, 375–383; Russell, 549–550.

  23. New York Times, September 7, 1922: “an ailment neither alarming nor serious”; Milton F. Heller, Jr.: The Presidents’ Doctor: An Insider’s View of Three First Families (New York: Vantage, 2000), 39–43: Boone summoned; Russell, 549: “I am afraid that Florence is going.”

  24. John Milton Cooper, Jr.: Woodrow Wilson. A Biography (New York: Random House, 2009), 535–540.

  25. Anthony, 376–7.

  26. J.M.T. Finney: A Surgeon’s Life: The Autobiography of J.M.T. Finney (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1940), 264–7.

  27. Ibid.

  28. Florence Harding to Evalyn McLean, February 5, 1923; Harry Daugherty to Florence Harding, February 16, 1923.

  29. Charles H. Mayo, Obituary, British Medical Journal 159–160 (June 3, 1939).

  30. John Miller Turpin Finney, Obituary, Annals of Surgery 119, no. 4 (April 1944): 616–621.

  31. Finney, 264–7.

  32. Robert H. Ferrell, The Strange Deaths of President Harding (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1996).

  33. “Mrs. Harding Back in Washington,” New York Times, January 3, 1924.

  34. Anthony, 516–518.

  35. Ibid., 522.

  36. Ibid., 524–5; “Harding’s Widow Is Seriously Ill,” New York Times, November 3, 1924.

  37. Burke A. Hinsdale and Isaac Newton Demmon, History of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1906), 272: biography of Dr. James Craven Wood; “Perform Operation on Mrs. Harding,” New York Times, November 8, 1924; “Mrs. Harding Dies After Long Fight,” New York Times, November 22, 1924; Anthony, 524–5.

  38. Milton F. Heller, Jr.: The Presidents’ Doctor: An Insider’s View of Three First Families (New York: Vantage, 2000), 5–7; Charles A. Roos, “Physicians to the Presidents, and Their Patients: A Bibliography,” Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 49 (1961).

  39. Cynthia Bittinger, Grace Coolidge: Sudden Star (New York: Nova History, 2005), 8; Grace Coolidge, Grace Coolidge: An Autobiography, ed. Lawrence Wilander and Robert Ferrell (Worland, WY: High Plains, 1992), ix, 79, 111.

  40. Coolidge, Grace Coolidge, ix; Bittinger, 5, 8; Ishbel Ross, Grace Coolidge and Her Era (Plymouth, VT: Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation, 1988), 4.

  41. Bittinger, 8: “She needed to improve her health”; Ross, 4: “Grace definitely liked long walks.”

  42. Coolidge Grace Coolidge, x.

  43. Ibid., 32.

  44. Ross, 11–12: “They made an uncommon pair”; Robert E. Gilbert, The Tormented President: Calvin Coolidge, Death and Clinical Depression (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003), 13: “shy disposition, somber demeanor, and conscientious devotion to duty.”

  45. Bittinger, 51.

  46. Robert H. Ferrell, Grace Coolidge: The People’s Lady in Silent Cal’s White House (Lawrence: Vantage, 2008), 6: eye for style, 72: great charm, poise and grace; Bittinger, 73: her personality was her strongest point.

  47. Bittinger, 93.

  48. Ross, 102.

  49. Joel Boone, Boone Diary, Library of Congress, Boone Collection, Box 40.

  50. Ibid.

  51. Ibid.

  52. Ibid.; Heller, 112–3.

  53. Ross, 238.

  54. Boone, Boone Diary; Heller, 112–3.

  55. Boone, Boone Diary: Coolidge’s evaluation of Coupal’s professional ability; Heller, 124: Boone’s assessment of Coupal’s medical ability.

  56. J. Morton Boice, “Benzyl Benzoate,” New York Medical Journal (December 13, 1919): 977–982; Boone, Boone Diary: his opinion of Coupal’s therapy, Dr. Young’s approval.

  57. Ross, 242–3; Bittinger, 87.

  58. Bittinger, 87.

  59. “Capital Society Events,” Washington Post, February 15, 1928: “prevented from attending by illness”; February 22, 1928: “recovery from recent illness”; March 4, March 14, 1928: “Mrs. Coolidge was unable to attend.”

  60. Hugh Young, Hugh Young: A Surgeon’s Autobiography (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1940), 398–403.

  61. Chapter Five, for the Pierce and Lincoln deaths; see below for the Kennedy death.

  62. Bittinger, 63.

  63. Heller, 84.

  64. “President’s Son Is Seriously Ill; Foot Is Poisoned,” Atlanta Constitution, July 5, 1924; “Calvin Coolidge Jr. Is Seriously Ill,” New York Times, July 5, 1924; “Condition of Coolidge Boy Is Unchanged, But Serious,” Washington Post, July 5, 1924.

  65. “President’s Son Is Seriously Ill,” Atlanta Constitution; “Calvin Coolidge Jr. Is Seriously Ill,” New York Times.

  66. “Operation on President’s Son Called Success: Father and Mother Spent Night at Hospital,” Atlanta Constitution, July 6, 1924.

  67. Ross, 117–120; Bittinger, 65–9; Heller 83–87.

  68. “Operate on Calvin, Jr. Doctors Battle for Boy’s Life,” Los Angeles Times, July 6, 1924; “Calvin Coolidge Jr. Dies of Blood Poisoning,” Atlanta Constitution, July 8, 1924; “Services Today For President’s Son,” New York Times, July 9, 1924; “Funeral for Coolidge’s Son at 4 p.m. Today,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 9, 1924; “Coolidges Depart for a Sunday Cruise,” New York Times, July 20, 1924.

  69. Gilbert, 165: “not believing that death has occurred”; 170: President Coolidge’s change in personality.

  70. Ibid., 213–4.

  71. Ibid., 123, 165; Bittinger, 72–3, and Ross, 123: wearing of white clothes.

  72. Ross, 138, 335.

  73. Bittinger, 49.

  74. Gilbert, 169.

  75. Bittinger, 62.

  76. Coolidge: Grace Coolidge, 33–5.

  77. Ibid., 109: death of Calvin Coolidge; Bittinger, xi: Grace Coolidge’s retirement.

  78. Bittinger, 116: walking habit; Ross, 334: cessation of walking habit in 1952.

  79. Bittinger, 117; Coolidge: Grace Coolidge, 115; Ross, 341.

  80. Ross, 341.

  Chapter 12

  1. “Mrs. Eisenhower and a Rumor,” New York Times, November 3, 1973; Susan Eisenhower, Mrs. Ike (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996), 270, has an additional Mamie Eisenhower quote from the same interview regarding her rumored alcoholism: “It ne
ver bothered me if people thought that. I lived with myself. I knew it wasn’t so. And my friends knew it was not”; Wikipedia: “Dipsomania” is a historical term describing a medical condition involving an uncontrollable craving for alcohol.

  2. Catherine Clinton, Mrs. Lincoln: A Life (New York: HarperCollins, 2009), 154: “Charges of treason and adultery were part and parcel of the smear tactics employed to bring down the controversial Mrs. Lincoln.”

  3. Eisenhower, Mrs. Ike, 196–7.

  4. Stephen E. Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier, General of the Army, President-Elect 1890–1952 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983), 52: Taft campaign; Eisenhower, Mrs. Ike, 269–270: embassy party; Lester David and Irene David, Ike and Mamie (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1981), 183.

  5. Ambrose, 532.

  6. National First Ladies’ Library, http://www.firstladies.org/personalinterests.aspx.

  7. Marilyn Irvin Holt, Mamie Doud Eisenhower: The General’s First Lady (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2007), 114–5.

  8. Mamie Eisenhower, National First Ladies’ Library, http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=35.

  9. David and David, 263–4.

  10. National First Ladies’ Library, http://www.firstladies.org/personalinterests.aspx.

  11. Mamie Eisenhower Medical Record, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, January 4, 1946, George P. Robb, M.D.; Susan Eisenhower, 195, David and David, 160–1: only one Old Fashioned; David and David: “had virtually ceased many years earlier”; Susan Eisenhower, 195, and David and David, 160–1, 265–6: Milton Eisenhower, Maxwell Rabb, and others affirmed that she was not an alcoholic.

  12. Mamie Eisenhower Medical Record, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, January 4, 1946, George P. Robb M.D.

  13. David and David, 264: Sterrett diagnosis; Mamie Eisenhower, interview by John Wickman, August 15, 1972, for the Eisenhower Library, Abilene, KS: OH #12, 92–3: “For twenty-five years or more than that I carried this equilibrium problem, which is carotid sinus.”

  14. Shona J. McIntosh and Rose Anne Kenny, “Carotid Sinus Syndrome in the Elderly,” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 187 (December 1994), 798–800; Mevan N. Wijetunga and Irwin J. Schatz, “Carotid Sinus Hypersensitivity,” http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/153312-overview (accessed May 11, 2010).

  15. Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Special People (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1977), 208; the record of this diagnosis could not be located in a review of Mrs. Eisenhower’s Walter Reed medical file.

  16. Susan Eisenhower, 196–7: The doctors made the diagnosis of Menière’s sometime after the war; David and David, 264: testing confirmed, probably at Walter Reed.

  17. Susan Eisenhower, 169–70; David and David: Dr. Sterrett’s diagnosis.

  18. Peter C. Weber and Warren Y. Adkins Jr.: “The Differential Diagnosis of Menière’s Disease,” Otolaryngologic Clinics of North America 30, no. 6 (December 1997): 977–986.

  19. Venita Jay, “A Portrait in History: Prosper Menière,” Archives of Pathology (February 2000), 124, 192.

  20. N.J. Beasley and N.S. Jones: “Menière’s Disease: Evolution of a Definition,” Journal of Laryngology and Otology 110, no. 12 (December 1996): 1107–13.

  21. L.R. Lustig and A. Lalwani: “The History of Menière’s Disease,” Otolaryngologic Clinics of North America 30, no. 6 (December 1997): 917–45.

  22. David and David, 264; Holt, 21: symptoms while descending the Alps; Susan Eisenhower, 196–7: “pitching sensation” in the Philippines.

  23. Holt, 40: “more acute than anything experienced in the Philippines”; Susan Eisenhower, 197: “couldn’t even hail a taxi”; Mamie Eisenhower, interview by Dr. John Wickman for the Eisenhower Library, August 15, 1972: OH #12, 92–3: could not drive a car; smelling salts; Dwight D. Eisenhower (Versailles) to Mamie Eisenhower (Washington), September 23, 1944.

  24. David and David, 265.

  25. A.C. Sodeman, J. Moller, et al.: “Stress as a Trigger of Attacks in Menière’s Disease,” Laryngoscope 10 (October 2004): 1843–8; “Stress Management Therapy for Menière’s Disease,” http:///www.clinical trails.gov/ct2/show/NCT01099046 (accessed March 19, 2013); Menière’s Society: “Managing Menière’s Disease,” http://www.menieres.org.uk/managing_md_the_task.html (accessed March 19, 2013); Menière’s Disease: http://www.entnet.org/HealthInformation/menieresDisease.cfm (accessed March 19, 2013); “What is Menière’s Disease? What Causes Menière’s Disease?” Medical News Today, http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/163888.php (accessed March 19, 2013).

  26. Susan Eisenhower, 83, 90.

  27. Mamie Eisenhower: Pueblo Hospital Medical Records, 1931.

  28. Susan Eisenhower, 145; Holt, 26; David and David, 111–3.

  29. Julie Eisenhower, 202; Ambrose, 244–5, 414; Susan Eisenhower, 187; David and David, 111-.

  30. Holt, 94.

  31. Howard Snyder Papers, Eisenhower Library; Mamie Eisenhower Medical Records, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Thomas Mattingly, 1951–57.

  32. Eisenhower Medical Record, Walter Reed Army Hospital, Susan Eisenhower, 20: for discussion of childhood rheumatic attack; Clarence G. Lasby, Eisenhower’s Heart Attack (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997), 29: for heart complications of rheumatic disease.

  33. Lasby, 29.

  34. Lasby, 29, Ambrose 244–5, 271: medical condition during World War II; Holt, 65: 1946 examination; Taylor letter to Snyder: progression of heart disease; Ambrose, 496: Eisenhower regarding NATO.

  35. Holt, 65, Walter Reed Medical Records: Mattingly; Walter Reed Medical Records, for Mattingly Consultations.

  36. Walter Reed Medical Records (Mattingly file); Holt, 143.

  37. Susan Eisenhower, 277; Holt, 65–7.

  38. Susan Eisenhower, 279.

  39. Holt, 65–7; Julie Eisenhower, 205; Watson, The Presidents’ Wives, 141.

  40. Watson, 141; Julie Eisenhower, 189: role as emotional support of her husband, 201: thirty-four moves, 203: “I never pretended to be anything but Ike’s wife.”

  41. Watson, 141; Julie Eisenhower, 204: advice sought for reelection campaign.

  42. Susan Eisenhower, 298, and Holt, 92: hysterectomy.

  43. Snyder book notes, 1–10; Deppisch, The White House Physician, 98–9.

  Chapter 13

  1. Annette Dunlap, Frank: The Story of Frances Folsom Cleveland, America’s Youngest First Lady (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2009), 17.

  2. Ibid., 34.

  3. C. David Heymann, A Woman Named Jackie (New York: Carol, 1994), 190.

  4. Jacqueline Kennedy Biography, National First Ladies’ Library, http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=36 (accessed April 15, 2013).

  5. Hugh Smith, interview, April 19, 2013.

  6. Heymann, 145.

  7. Jack Anderson, “Kennedy’s Most Pressing Date,” Los Angeles Times, August 6, 1963, p. 6.

  8. Thomas Reeves, A Question of Character: A Life of John F. Kennedy (New York: Free Press/ Macmillan, 1991), 137–8: “Jack might have spent some time with his wife, offering sympathy and companionship, but instead, he went on his own way”; “Jack only agreed to return home three days later, after Smathers convinced him that a shattered marriage would harm his political career”; C. David Heymann, Bobby and Jackie: A Love Story (New York: Atria, 2009), 22–4: “On August 23, two days after learning of her husband’s infidelity, Jackie experienced severe stomach cramps and soon began to hemorrhage”; “She thought that Jack should have been there for her and not off on a pleasure cruise with a trio of young, sexy bimbos.”

  9. Reeves, 137–8; Heymann: A Woman Named Jackie, 190–2.

  10. “Wife of Sen. Kennedy Loses Unborn Baby,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 24, 1956.

  11. “Kennedy Reaches Ill Wife’s Side,” Washington Post and Times Herald, August 29, 1956: He arrived by plane from Paris five days after the miscarriage. Mrs. Kennedy’s condition was “fine.”

  12. Heymann: A Woman Named Jackie, 191–2.

  13.
Jackie Kennedy, Female Celebrity Smoking List, http://smokingsides.com/asfs?K/Kennedy.html (accessed April 26, 2013): her smoking habit; Smoking tied to miscarriage risk, http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/lifestyle/01/01/11/smoking-tied-miscarriage (accessed April 22, 2013).

  14. Heymann, 200; “Kennedys Have Daughter,” Washington Post, November 28, 1957.

  15. Sally Bedell Smith, Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House (New York: Random House, 2004), 54.

  16. “Jacqueline and Baby ‘Doing Fine,’” Washington Post, November 26, 1960.

  17. Reeves, 219–220.

  18. “Mrs. Kennedy Bears Son,” Chicago Daily Tribune, November 25, 1960; “Jacqueline and Baby ‘Doing Fine,’” Washington Post, November 26, 1960; “Kennedy Alters Schedule to Stay Close to New Son,” New York Times, November 26, 1960.

  19. Laurence Leamer, The Kennedy Women (New York: Villard, 1994), 512–15.

  20. Clint Hill, Mrs. Kennedy and Me (New York: Gallery, 2012), 31.

  21. Leamer, 518, 521–2; Barbara Leaming, Mrs. Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years (New York: Free, 2001), 23–4: “alone and terrified,” 31.

  22. Jacqueline Kennedy, Historic Conversations with Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., 1964 (New York: Hyperion, 2011), 153. Dexedrine is a brand name for dextroamphetamine.

  23. Leamer, 21: in bed for a week; Leaming, 51: engagements cancelled; 100: secluded in a bedroom with depression.

  24. Leaming, 103: Kennedy friend Chuck Spalding introduced JFK to “Dr. Feelgood.” Jacobson injected Kennedy just prior to the first Nixon-Kennedy television debate, 104: description of Feelgood’s procedure and results.

  25. Heymann: A Woman Named Jackie, 312.

  26. “Postpartum depression,” MayoClinic.com, http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/postpartum-depression/DS00546 (accessed April 25, 2013).

  27. Richard A. Lertzman and William J. Birnes, Dr. Feelgood (New York: Skyhorse, 2013), xiv, 9.

  28. Smith, 202–3; Leaming, 105: dry mouth a side effect of amphetamines.

  29. Leaming, 105, 106, 108, 109, 110, 116, 117; Leamer, 534, 535, 537; Smith, 202–204.

  30. Heymann, Jackie and Bobby, 12–3.

  31. “Newborn Kennedy Son Ill,” Chicago Tribune, August 8, 1963.