Grace Coolidge
Grace Anna Coolidge was first lady of the United States from 1923 to 1929 as the wife of the 30th president of the United States, Calvin Coolidge. She was previously the second lady of the United States from 1921 to 1923 and the first lady of Massachusetts from 1919 to 1921.
Coolidge was born and raised in Burlington, Vermont, and attended the University of Vermont where she co-founded the school's chapter of Pi Beta Phi. She moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, to teach at Clarke School for the Deaf. She met Calvin Coolidge in Northampton, and they married in 1905. They would have two sons. She stayed in Northampton to raise their children while her husband's political career progressed in Boston. The family moved to Washington, D.C. when her husband was elected vice president in 1921, and into the White House after the death of Warren G. Harding made him president in 1923.
Coolidge was active as first lady, hosting thousands of guests each year, and she made regular public appearances in the President's stead. She was a highly popular first lady and highly regarded for her ability to charm visitors. Her fashion choices were influential among American women as she wore a variety of hats and chose modest versions of contemporary designs. Coolidge distanced herself from the politically active first ladies who preceded her, though she quietly took interest in helping women's groups and the deaf. She felt restricted by the role of first lady; she believed that it took priority over her own interests, and she was subject to many rules imposed on her by her husband. She was especially affected by the death of her younger son in 1924, though she interrupted her duties as White House hostess for only a few weeks. In the final year of her tenure, Coolidge was afflicted with kidney disease which left her temporarily debilitated.
The Coolidges returned to Northampton in 1929, where Coolidge began publishing poetry and autobiographical essays. Following her husband's death in 1933, she became more independent and began traveling. Coolidge was an advocate of American involvement in World War II, and she lent her house to WAVES after the U.S. entered the war. She remained active on the board of Clarke School and in programs for the deaf until her death in 1957.
Early life
Childhood
Grace Anna Goodhue was born in Burlington, Vermont, on January 3, 1879, as the only child of Andrew Issachar Goodhue and Lemira Barrett Goodhue. She was part of the family that was descended from the 1635 colonist William Goodhue and congressman Benjamin Goodhue. Each summer, she joined a family reunion in Hancock, New Hampshire, until 1899 when the last of the Goodhue grandparents died. She also visited her maternal grandfather in the summers where she listened to his stories of the Civil War. Goodhue was close to her mother as a child, following her where she went and taking up the same household chores like sewing.Goodhue's father was a milling engineer, and the family rented a house from his employer. In the early 1880s, her father built them a new home near the mill at 123 Maple Street, installing several desirable features: a bathtub of tin and wood, a furnace that heated the entire home, and electric lights. With the exception of a spinal problem that was treated through exercise, Goodhue faced little adversity during her childhood. When her father was injured in a work accident in 1886, she stayed with their neighbors, the Yale family. Here she bonded with their adult daughter, June Yale. June began teaching at the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts, and sometimes brought students to Vermont in the summers. By her teenage years, Goodhue was helping June care for them.
Goodhue's father left the mill after his accident and co-founded a machine shop. He was a Democrat, and with this experience he was appointed by Democratic President Grover Cleveland as a steamboat inspector later in 1886. This brought money and status to the family in their small town. Goodhue had a deeply religious upbringing, raised on Puritan values and spending most of the family's social outings at church events. The family was Methodist until she was a teenager, when she convinced them to convert to Congregationalism. Her father built a new home for the family at 312 Maple Street in 1899.
Education
Goodhue attended Burlington High School, where she studied Latin and French. She also received private lessons in piano, speech, and singing. She spoke at her school's commencement in 1897, delivering a speech she titled "Tramp Instinct". She enrolled at the University of Vermont in 1897, then dropped out that November because of an eye condition and returned the following year. She took little interest in her studies. Instead, Goodhue was involved with several activities in and out of the university, including dance, skating, tobogganing, sleighing, theater, Bible class, Christian Endeavor, and poetry. She also joined the glee club where she performed as a contralto, and she became her class's vice president in her second year. Goodhue gained a reputation for being likeable and outgoing, and she was courted by several men over the course of her schooling. Her most serious relationship was with a man named Frank Joyner. Despite her family's reservations about Joyner, the two had an informal agreement that they would wed. Although the prevailing opinion at the time that rotundness was an attractive trait, Goodhue was insecure about her weight and restricted her diet.Noticing a lonely-looking woman on the University of Vermont campus, Goodhue befriended Ivah Gale. Gale eventually moved into the Goodhue home where she shared a bedroom with Goodhue, and they were among those who co-founded the university's chapter of Pi Beta Phi, a women's fraternity. The group held its meetings in Goodhue's home. In 1901, Goodhue traveled to Syracuse, New York, to attend the fraternity's national convention. She graduated from the University of Vermont in 1902, and decided to teach at Clarke School for the Deaf. She wrote to the school's principal, June Yale's aunt Caroline Yale, about training as an instructor for the deaf. Goodhue moved to Northampton where she taught at the school for three years, first instructing the primary school children before working with middle school students. Her mother opposed the decision, wishing that she would be a teacher at a local school. The Clarke School's policy was to teach lip reading rather than sign language, which Goodhue agreed was beneficial for the students as it allowed them to participate in society.
Marriage and family
Goodhue met Calvin Coolidge in her second year at Northampton. While watering flowers outside of the dormitory, she first saw the young man through a window across from the school, where he was shaving wearing only long underwear and a derby hat. He heard her laugh, and he subsequently asked his landlord, the school's steward Robert Weir, to introduce them. Weir set them up to both appear at a mutual friend's house. Joking about her suitor's reserved nature, he commented that if Goodhue could teach the deaf to hear, then she could perhaps teach the mute to speak. They began a relationship; Goodhue had kept in touch with her previous suitor, Frank Joyner, but she had ended the relationship with him.Calvin Coolidge was active in politics and took her to a Republican Party event at city hall for their first date. From then on, he could be found accompanying her to all of her picnics and dances, though he did not participate. He attempted to ice skate with her once and decided they would go home when he was unsuccessful. To those around them, their relationship was defined by their contrasting personalities, as he was quiet and reserved as opposed to her more outgoing demeanor. Despite this, they bonded over several shared qualities: their background as college-educated Vermonters, mischievous senses of humor, work ethic, religious sensibilities, and feelings of idealism and public service. The two frequently exchanged playful remarks targeting one another, often focused on her cooking and his quietude, respectively. He welcomed her nasally impression of him. She got along well with his family and had their approval. Although Goodhue had been raised as a Democrat, she switched to the Republican Party. She also had her friend Ivah Gale take a three-hour buggy ride with him, so she could form her own opinion of the man. He said nothing during the trip, but Gale wanted the couple to stay together and said she had got along well with him.
The first time Goodhue's parents met their daughter's suitor, he asked permission to marry her. He proposed to Goodhue in 1905 by telling her "I am going to be married to you". Goodhue's mother was not fond of him and sought to delay the wedding, but he insisted on a date no later than October. The couple married in the parlor of the Goodhue family's home on October 4, 1905, with fifteen guests in attendance. Calvin and Grace Coolidge took a short honeymoon in Montreal, but time was limited as he had to return to Northampton to run as a candidate for the school board—he was not elected. They first lived in the Norwood Hotel for three weeks before staying in a home owned by a professor at Smith College. They moved to their long-term home at 21 Massasoit Street in 1906. The Coolidges had very little money in these early years of their marriage, but she was often the recipient of desirable clothes and hats as gifts from her husband. She otherwise made her own clothes. When the Norwood Hotel closed, they purchased some of its branded linen and silverware for their own use.
The couple had two sons: John Coolidge on September 7, 1906, and Calvin Coolidge Jr. on April 13, 1908. It took them a long time to name their younger son, and they initially called him Bunny because he was born around Easter. Calvin Coolidge was elected to the Massachusetts legislature shortly after their first son was born, so he spent much of his time in the state capital, Boston. They felt it was important not to let his career be a burden on the children, so the rest of the family stayed in Northampton and he returned home on the weekends. Even when he was home, he had his wife address the needs of their children. She engaged in activities with them, teaching them baseball and constructing wooden cars for them to ride in. She came to love baseball and was a fan of the sport for the rest of her life. She had little involvement in his professional life and made no attempt to be present for it after one instance when he asked her not to attend a speech he gave at their church.
Coolidge's husband left the state legislature in 1909 and became mayor of Northampton the following year, giving him a job that let him return to his family each night. He was elected to the state legislature again in 1911 and went back to Boston. Coolidge was a regular participant in church activities while her husband was away and attended card parties with her friends, where she sewed while the others played. She visited Washington, D.C. for the first time in 1912 when she chaperoned a trip for students of Northampton High School. She is quoted as saying that she would one day return to the White House to play its piano, after a guard rebutted her attempt to do so. Her younger son was diagnosed with emphysema the following year, necessitating an operation.