32. Hill, 237–8; Chicago Tribune, August 8, 1963, regarding the upgrade of the Otis maternity unit.
33. Anderson.
34. Smith, 390.
35. Ibid., 393; Chicago Tribune, August 8, 1963; “2d Son Born to Kennedys; Has Lung Illness,” New York Times, August 8, 1963; “Kennedy Baby Dies at Boston Hospital; President at Hand,” New York Times, August 9, 1963.
36. Jerome Groopman, “A Child in Time,” New Yorker, October 24, 2011.
37. “First Lady Quits Hospital Today,” New York Times, August 13, 1963; Hugh Smith interview.
38. “Mrs. Kennedy Told to Curb Her Activities,” Chicago Tribune, August 14, 1963; “Mrs. Kennedy Rests at Home,” Washington Post, August 16, 1963.
39. Smith, 396–7; Hill, 251.
40. Ibid., 264.
41. Smith, 449; Heymann: Jackie and Bobby, 8.
42. “John W. Walsh, 87, Kennedy Obstetrician,” Obituary, New York Times, November 25, 2000.
43. Allan Nevins, Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1948), 522.
44. William Degregorio, The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents (New York: Wings, 1993), 320–3; Craig Hart, A Genealogy of the Wives of American Presidents and Their First Two Generations of Descent (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2004), 56; Francis Cleveland Biography, National First Ladies’ Library, http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=23 (accessed December 16, 2013).
45. Annette Dunlap, Frank: The Story of Frances Folsom Cleveland, America’s Youngest First Lady (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2009), 29: quote, 32, 85: for social grace and poise.
46. Ibid., 99.
47. Ibid., 32, 87–90; Ludwig M. Deppisch, “President Cleveland’s Secret Operation,” PHAROS 58, no. 3 (Summer 1995), 11–16: circumstances surrounding Cleveland’s operation.
48. Dunlap, 93.
49. Nevins, 522.
50. Ibid.; Dunlap, 94.
51. Joseph Decatur Bryant, “Deaths,” Journal of the American Medical Association 62 (1914): 1185, for Dr. Bryant’s professional accomplishments and friendship with the Clevelands; “Grover’s Baby,” Atlanta Constitution, December 4, 1891; “If It Only Were a Boy!,” Chicago Daily Tribune, October 4, 1891; “Mrs. Cleveland a Mother,” Washington Post, October 4, 1891: Bryant’s delivery of Ruth Cleveland; Dunlap, 113–14: Bryant at the death of Baby Ruth Cleveland; Dunlap, 121: years later Frances Cleveland was the plaintiff in a fraud suit over a newspaper article. Her case was prosecuted “with help [from] her longtime friend and family physician, Dr. Joseph Bryant.”
52. Dunlap. 73–4: “rather a long labor—but not at all severe”; Dunlap, 101: “and I feel that it is only fair to their father to have them as young as he can”; Hart, 55–6: for the births and deaths of the five Cleveland children.
53. Dunlap, 131–2.
54. Ibid., 165.
55. Sylvia Jukes Morris, Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady (New York: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, 1980), 249–50.
56. Ibid., 62, 64, 74; “Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt,” Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University, http://www.theodoreroosevelycenter.org/Learn-About-TR/Themes (accessed December 18, 2013).
57. Morris, 88, 91, 94, 100.
58. “Teddy Roosevelt’s Widow Dies at 87,” Chicago Daily Tribune, October 1, 1948: “a brilliant social regime”; “Mrs. T. Roosevelt Dies at Oyster Bay,” New York Times, October 1, 1948: “she presided as mistress of the White House (1901–1909), with grace and distinction…. She was an excellent conversationalist and a musician of more than ordinary attainments.”
59. Morris, 372–3.
60. New York Times, October 1, 1948, for hip fracture; Morris, 516.
61. Morris, 111–3, 120, 136, 150, 168.
62. Ibid., 111–3.
63. Ibid., 170, 172.
64. Edith Carow Roosevelt, Biography. National First Ladies’ Library, http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=26 (accessed December 18, 2013); H.W. Brands, TR: The Last Romantic (New York: Basic, 1997), 217.
65. Morris, 249–50.
66. Carl Sferrazza Anthony, First Ladies: The Saga of the Presidents’ Wives and Their Power, 1789–1961, vols. 1, 2 (New York: William Morrow, 1990), 307: As first lady, Edith twice became pregnant, although miscarriage intervened; Edith Roosevelt Biography, National First Ladies’ Library; Morris, 238: letter to sister.
67. Morris, 265.
68. Anthony, 128.
69. Julia Tyler, Biography. National First Ladies’ Library, http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=11 (accessed December 19, 2013).
70. Chapter Three.
71. Anthony, 124.
72. Julia Tyler Biography, National First Ladies’ Library: explosion aboard the Princeton; Julia Gardner Tyler, American President: A Reference Resource, http://millercenter.org/president/tyler/essay/firstlady/juliatyler (accessed April 2, 2013): Dolley Madison a mentor.
73. Anthony, 126–9.
74. Hart, 124–7.
Chapter 14
1. Anthony, First Ladies: The Saga of the Presidents’ Wives and Their Power, 1789–1961, vols. 1, 2 (New York: William Morrow, 1990), 431.
2. Ibid, 435, 445; John B. Roberts, II: Rating the First Ladies (New York: Citadel, 2003), 231; Lou Hoover, National First Ladies’ Library, http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=32 (accessed May 8, 2013).
3. Anthony, 436.
4. Lou Hoover, First Ladies’ Library; Roberts, Rating the First Ladies, 236.
5. “Mrs. Hoover Dies of Heart Attack,” New York Times, January 8, 1944.
6. Craig Hart, A Genealogy of the Wives of American Presidents and Their First Two Generations of Descent (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2004), 129–30.
7. Milton F. Heller, Jr.: The Presidents’ Doctor: An Insider’s View of Three First Families (New York: Vantage, 2000), 56: taught Lou Hoover how to dance; 118: advice regarding prep school.
8. Ibid., 140–1.
9. “Herbert Hoover Jr. to Convalesce at Asheville,” Lewiston Star, October 16, 1930.
10. Heller, 139.
11. Margaret Truman, First Ladies (New York: Random House, 1995), 57.
12. Ibid., 56–71. The chapter “The Lost Companion” incisively details the personal dynamics of President and Mrs. Roosevelt by someone who was a very astute observer of presidential couples.
13. Roberts, Rating the First Ladies, xxiii; Watson, The Presidents’ Wives, 189.
14. Joseph P. Lash, Eleanor and Franklin (New York: W.W. Norton, 1971), 83.
15. Ibid., 154, 159, 163, 166, 193–4.
16. Ibid., 178.
17. Joseph P. Lash, Eleanor: The Years Alone (New York: W.W. Norton, 1972), 305.
18. David Gurewitsch, “The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project,” http://www.gwu.edu/-erpapers/teachinger/glossary/gurewitsch-david.cfm (accessed June 20, 2013).
19. Lash, Eleanor, 321–2.
20. Ibid., 331, quotes letter from son-in-law Dr. James Halsted to son James Roosevelt; last illness, 330–2.
21. Barron H. Lerner, “What Can We Learn from Eleanor Roosevelt’s Death?” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barron-h-lerner/eleanor-roosevelt-end.html (June 18, 2013).
22. Sara L. Sale: Bess Wallace Truman: Harry’s White House “Boss” (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2010), 33.
23. Ibid., 19: for Truman wedding; Bess Truman, Biography, National First Ladies’ Library and Museum, http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=34 (accessed May 28, 2013): for the longevity of the Truman marriage.
24. Sale, 22: “and made a bed for her in a bureau drawer”; Margaret Truman, Bess W. Truman (New York: Macmillan, 1986), 84: Bess Truman’s concern over age at pregnancy.
25. Sale, 103.
26. Ibid., 33.
27. “Mrs. Truman Retires With Nation’s Esteem,” Los Angeles Times, January 18, 1953.
28. Bess Truman, Biography, First Ladies.’
29.
“Mrs. Truman/ Cheerfulness Reason Plain,” Los Angeles Times, March 30, 1952; “First Lady Ready for Folksy Ways,” New York Times, March 30, 1952.
30. Sale, 65–6; M. Truman, 338–9, 347.
31. Deppisch, The White House Physician, 106–108, for a discussion of Dr. Wallace Graham’s career; “Ex-1st Lady OK After Hip Surgery,” Chicago Tribune, May 8, 1981.
32. Sale, 133.
33. “Bess Truman in Hospital,” Los Angeles Times, November 22, 1978.
34. Sale, 130.
35. “Ex-1st Lady OK After Hip Surgery,” Chicago Tribune, May 8, 1981; “Bess Truman Home, Happy,” Los Angeles Times, June 22, 1981.
36. “Stroke Hospitalizes Mrs. Truman,” Los Angeles Times, September 28, 1981.
37. Sale, 130: for Mrs. Truman’s symptoms, reasons for delayed treatment and difficult recovery; “Mrs. Truman Has Operation. Tumor Removed from Left Breast,” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 19, 1959; “Good News—Twice for Harry Truman,” United Press International, May 19, 1959: benign, an “unusual type of tumor known medically as a benign myxoma”; “Mrs. Truman Home in ‘Excellent’ Condition,” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 4, 1959; G. Magro, et al.: “Clinico-Pathological Features of Breast Myxoma: Report of a Case with Histogenetic Considerations,” Virchow’s Arch. 456, no. 5 (May 2010): 581–6: If the diagnosis of benign myxoma was correct, it indeed was a very rare tumor. Mrs. Truman’s tumor-free survival of twenty-three years proved that the tumor was certainly benign and definitely not malignant.
38. “Truman’s Widow Bess Dead at 97,” Chicago Tribune, October 19, 1982.
39. “Lady Bird Johnson, 94, Dies; Eased a Path to Power,” New York Times, July 12, 2007.
40. Margaret Truman, First Ladies (New York: Random House, 1995), 6: advice given by former First Lady Lou Hoover to incoming First Lady Bess Truman.
41. Lewis L. Gould, Lady Bird Johnson: Our Environmentalist First Lady (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1999), 10, 14.
42. David Murphy, A Texas Bluebonnet: Lady Bird Johnson (New York: Nova Science, 2011), 99.
43. Gould, 126; Murphy, 99.
44. Gould, ix.
45. Watson, The Presidents’ Wives, 188–9; Roberts, Rating the First Ladies, xxiii.
Chapter 15
1. BreastCancer.org, http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/statistics (accessed December 22, 2013): About 1 in 8 U.S. women (just under 12 percent) will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime. In 2013, an estimated 232,340 new cases of invasive breast cancer were expected to be diagnosed in women in the United States, along with 64,640 new cases of noninvasive (in situ) breast cancer.
2. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “Leading Causes of Death in Females United States, 2010,” http://www.cdc.gov/women/lcod/2010/index.htm (accessed December 22, 2013).
3. Woody Holton, Abigail Adams (New York: Free, 2009): for Nabby Adams Smith’s three-year battle with cancer of the breast, 365–371, 373, 376, 385–8; Chapter Eleven, for Mrs. Truman’s benign breast tumor.
4. John Robert Greene, Betty Ford: Candor and Courage in the White House (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004), 106.
5. Betty Ford with Chris Chase, The Times of My Life (New York: Ballantine, 1978), birth, 5–6, first marriage and divorce, 40, 45.
6. Ibid., 57: for second marriage, 77: for her pregnancies; Hart, 90.
7. Greene, 51–2.
8. Ibid., 45–7.
9. “Mrs. Ford Faces a Breast Biopsy,” New York Times, September 28, 1974: report of a previous gynecological examination; K.J. Robson, “Advances in Mammographic Imaging,” British Journal of Radiology (2010), 83, 273–275; for first mammogram machine; “Chronological History of ACS Recommendations for the Early Detection of Cancer,” http://www.cancer.org/healthy/findcancerearly/cancerscreeningguidelines.html (accessed July 19, 2013): for the American Cancer Society’s guidelines.
10. Greene, 45–7: for the sequence of events; “Mrs. Ford Faces a Breast Biopsy,” New York Times, September 28, 1974.
11. Greene, 45–7; “The Most Feared of Tumors,” Time, October 7, 1974, specified the location of the cancer and added details of Dr. Fouty’s experience.
12. “The Most Feared of Tumors,” Time.
13. “Mrs. Ford Ready to Leave Hospital,” New York Times, October 11, 1974; “Mrs. Ford Resumes Her Role as Hostess,” New York Times, October 24, 1974.
14. Ford with Chase, 204, 210.
15. Greene, 49, enumerated 45,000 letters and cards; Jeffrey S. Ashley, “The Social and Political Influence of Betty Ford: Betty Bloomer Blossoms,” White House Studies 101, no. 8 (Winter 2001), estimated 55,000 cards and letters; Greene, 49: Happy Rockefeller.
16. Ashley.
17. Tasha N. Dubriwny, “Constructing Breast Cancer in the News: Betty Ford and the Evolution of the Breast Cancer Patient,” Journal of Communication Inquiry 33, no. 2 (April 2009), 104–125; “New Attitudes Ushered in by Betty Ford,” New York Times, October 17, 1987.
18. Greene, 52.
19. Ford with Chase, The Times of My Life; Betty Ford with Chris Chase, Betty: A Glad Awakening (New York: Jove, 1988).
20. Ford with Chase: Betty: A Glad Awakening, 37; Greene, 3–4: father and brother were alcoholics; Ford with Chase, The Times of My Life, 41–5; Greene, 12–13; first husband was a heavy drinker.
21. Ford with Chase, Betty: A Glad Awakening, 38: “In Washington there is more alcohol consumed per capita than in any other city in the United States.”
22. Ford with Chase, The Times of My Life, 10.
23. Ibid., 134: “quit drinking for a couple of years”; Greene, 25: “I don’t remember when I went from being a social drinker to being preoccupied with drinking, but I am sure it was pretty gradual.”
24. Ford, Betty, http:///www.fofweb.com/Hiytory/HistRefMain.asp?Pin=firstladies34 (accessed July 26, 2013; Ford with Chase, Betty: A Glad Awakening, 43–4: “I was hospitalized for stomach trouble. The doctors checked stomach, gallbladder, kidneys, and they couldn’t find anything wrong. Then they brought in a specialist who diagnosed my illness as pancreatitis. He said: ‘Young lady, if I were you, I would just stay on the other side of the room from the bar for a while.’ I don’t even remember how or why I started drinking again.”
25. Ford with Chase, Betty: A Glad Awakening, 128–9, 131, 133; Greene, 24.
26. Greene, 3.
27. Ford with Chase, The Times of My Life, 135–6.
28. Greene, 68.
29. Ford with Chase, Betty: A Glad Awakening, 45: “It was better in the White House”; Greene, 69–70: drinking in the White House.
30. Greene, 102–4.
31. Ibid., 104–8.
32. Ibid., 108.
33. “Betty Ford, Former First Lady, Dies at 93,” New York Times, July 8, 2011.
34. Nancy Reagan, Biography, National First Ladies’ Library and Museum, http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=41 (accessed July 17, 2013).
35. Craig Hart, A Genealogy of the Wives of American Presidents and Their First Two Generations of Descent (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2004), 181: Nancy Reagan’s parents and birth; Nancy Reagan, National First Ladies’ Museum: for her mother’s career, second marriage and death.
36. Nancy Reagan Biography, National First Ladies’ Library; Nancy Reagan with William Novak, My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan (New York: Random House, 1989), 63.
37. “Chronological History of ACS Recommendations for the Early Detection of Cancer,” http://www.cancer.org/healthy/findcancerearly/cancerscreeningguidelines.html (accessed July 19, 2013): American Cancer Society guidelines.
38. James G. Benze, Jr., Nancy Reagan (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005), 111–2; Reagan, My Turn, 285.
39. Reagan, My Turn, 286–7.
40. Thomas R. Russell, “Remembering Oliver H. Beahrs,” Oncology Times 28, no. 7 (April 10, 2006): 33–34, for Beahrs’ biography; Reagan, My Turn, 286, for Nancy Reagan’s comfort with him as a physician.
4
1. Oliver H. Baehrs, “The Medical History of President Ronald Reagan,” Journal of the American College 178 (January 1994), 86–96; “President Is Well After Operation to Ease Prostate,” New York Times, January 6, 1987.
42. Reagan, My Turn, 292, for discussion with Marlin Fitzwater, the presidential press secretary.
43. “Mastectomy Seen as Extreme for Small Tumor,” New York Times, October 18, 1987, for specifics regarding Mrs. Reagan’ cancer; Reagan, My Turn, 296: Involvement of John Hutton; “In Breast Cancer, Treatment Dilemma Persists,” Washington Post, October 20, 1987: Prognosis close to 100 percent.
44. “More Women Seek X-Rays of Breasts,” New York Times, November 1, 1987, reported the 30 percent to 50 percent estimate; Dorothy S. Lane, Anthony P. Polednak and Mary Ann Burg, “The Impact of Media Coverage of Nancy Reagan’s Experience on Breast Cancer Screening,” American Journal of Public Health 70, no. 11 (November 1989): 1551–2. This article with a two-year retrospective determined a more modest 12 percent increment; “Nancy Reagan Urges Breast Checkups,” Chicago Tribune, October 21, 1987. Spokeswoman Elaine Crispen released the statement.
45. “First Lady Welcomed Home by Crowd, Jazz Combo,” Los Angeles Times, October 23, 1987;
“First Lady Marks First Year Since Cancer Surgery,” Los Angeles Times, October 18, 1988.
46. “Mastectomy Seen as Extreme for Small Tumor,” New York Times, October 18, 1987. Rose Kushner, executive director of the Breast Cancer Advisory Center in Kensington, Maryland, added, “I am not recommending that anyone do it her way”; “In Breast Cancer, Treatment Dilemma Persists,” Washington Post, October 20, 1987, pointed out that the recommended surgery was a lumpectomy; Letter to the editor, “Mastectomy Is Not the Only Choice,” Chicago Tribune, October 31, 1987.
47. “Nancy Reagan Defends Her Decision to Have Mastectomy,” New York Times, March 5, 1988.
48. Ann Butler Nattinger, et al.: “Effect of Nancy Reagan’s Mastectomy on Choice of Surgery for Breast Cancer by U.S. Women,” Journal of the American Medical Association 279, no. 10 (1998): 762–766.
49. “Nancy Reagan Has Tumor Removed from Her Face,” New York Times, August 30, 1990; “Nancy Reagan Hospitalized with Broken Pelvis,” People, October 15, 2008; Paula Spencer Scott, “Nancy Reagan’s Fall Wasn’t Her First,” http://www.caring.com/blogs/fyi-daily/nancy-reagans-fall-wasnt-her-first (accessed July 14, 2013); “Frail Nancy Reagan Soldiers On,” National Enquirer, March 4, 2013.
The Health of the First Ladies: Medical Histories from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama Page 35
