Margaret Woodrow Wilson
Margaret Woodrow Wilson was the eldest daughter of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and Ellen Louise Axson. She is best known for serving as First Lady of the United States from August 1914 to December 1915, during the period between her mother's death and her father's remarriage to Edith Bolling Galt.
Born in Gainesville, Georgia, Wilson spent her early years in academic environments due to her father's career as a professor, later attending Goucher College and training in voice and piano at the Peabody Institute. She developed a strong interest in music, social service, and education, and became an accomplished soprano singer, making several recordings and performing for Allied troops during World War I.
Wilson was also an advocate for women's suffrage and, despite her father's policies supporting segregation, she worked to improve conditions for African American students in Washington, D.C. Later in her life, she became deeply interested in spirituality. In 1938, she moved to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India, where she was given the name Nistha. She remained at the ashram until her death in 1944.
Biography
Margaret Woodrow Wilson was born in Gainesville, Georgia, on April 16, 1886. At the time of her birth, Wilson's parents were living near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; her father was on the faculty of Bryn Mawr College. She had two siblings: Jessie, and Eleanor. Both of her parents strongly identified with the South. Consequently, Ellen Wilson did not want her children born as Yankees and arranged to stay with family in Gainesville for Margaret's birth. Margaret attended local schools, some of which were associated with the colleges where her father taught. She was a member of Gamma Phi Beta Sorority at Goucher College, alongside her sister Jessie.In his will, Wilson's father had bequeathed her an annuity of $2,500 annually as long as that amount did not exceed one-third of the annual income of his estate, and as long as she remained unmarried. Wilson sang, and she made several recordings. In 1914, "My Laddie" was released on Columbia Records, #39195.
In 1938, Wilson traveled to the ashram of Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry, India, where she remained for the rest of her life. She became a member and devotee of the ashram and was given the new name Nistha, meaning "dedication" in Sanskrit. She and the scholar Joseph Campbell edited the English translation of the classical work on the Hindu mystic, Sri Ramakrishna, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Nikhilananda, which was published in 1942, by Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, New York.
Wilson died from uremia on February 12, 1944, at the age of 57, and was buried in Pondicherry, India, unmarried, and without issue.