Helen taft

 

 

            Hello, my name is Bailey Solarek, in class we had to do research on a president’s first lady. The first lady I choose was Helen Herron Taft.  Helen was born on June, 2, 1861 in Cincinnati, Ohio; her parents are John and Harriet Herron. Helen was the fifth of ten children; seven sisters, two brothers; Emily Herron Parsons (1856-1931),  unnamed infant sister (1857) Jane "Jennie" Herron  Anderson (1858-1930), second unnamed infant sister (1860) Maria Herron (1864-1954), William C. Herron (1864-1922), John W. Herron (1870-1949), Eleanor Herron More (1874-1931), Lucy Herron Laughlin Lippitt (1879-1961). Her schooling was in a primary department (6-10 of age), during these years, her lifelong love of music was also borne out of lessons from George Schneider, and then she was in the high department (attended at the age 11). She was raised in the religion of Presbyterian. Before she was married she was a regular school teacher.  She was 25 years old, on June, 19, 1886, the Herron home, Pike Street, Cincinnati, Ohio; she got married to William Howard Taft. William Howard Taft had first met Helen in the winter of 1879 at a bobsled party. After her and William got married she became a kindergarten teacher. She stopped working when she figured out that she was pregnant. Together they had three children, two sons, one daughter: Robert Taft (8 September 1889 - 31 July 1953); Helen Taft [Manning] (1 August 1891 - 21 February 1987); Charles Taft (20 September 1897 - 24 June 1983). She said "I found, at last, a practical method for expressing and making use of my love and knowledge of music," she recalled. She did all this while raising her three children essentially alone, since Taft was largely away from home as circuit court judge. Relocating to Washington with her husband, Nellie Taft found her own life as a Cabinet wife dull and demeaning so she threw her energies entirely into helping secure Roosevelt's support for Taft as the Republican presidential candidate in 1908. She was 47 when Taft got elected as president; the dates of the presidency were 4 March 1909 - 4 March 1913. The important political role that Nellie Taft played in helping her husband get elected to the presidency, what she euphemistically termed "an active interest," was not as much in evidence during his Administration. Much of her work during the transition was in vetting potential political appointees but she soon found her own personal projects, social planning and household management consuming her time, seeing plays/ musicals, and planning parties.  Taft reveled in her husband’s inauguration, and she proudly became the first presidential wife to ride next to her husband in the procession from the Capitol to the White House after the inauguration. Once in the White House, Mrs. Taft’s attentions turned away from politics and more towards the operation of the executive mansion and its complex social activities. She later observed about her life after entry to the White House: “My very active participation in my husband’s career came to an end when he became President.” She added, "In the White House I found my own duties too engrossing to permit me to follow him long or very far into the governmental maze . . . ." Nellie Taft's public appearances were limited after she suffered a stroke on 17 May 1909. The stroke was not devastating, but Nellie Taft did suffer from aphasia, and had to relearn how to speak As First Lady, Nellie lost little time in making changes to the White House.  She converted several public rooms for the private use of her family.  “Perhaps I did make the process of adjusting the White House routine to my own conceptions a shade too strenuous.  I could not feel that I was mistress of any house if I did not take an active interest in all the details of running it. …I made very few changes, really.”  The Taft’s, however, were the last presidential family to have a cow on the White House lawn and the first to have a presidential automobile. After their White House years, Helen Taft took up residence with her husband in New Haven, Connecticut, she returned to her beloved Washington in 1921 when her husband was given the office to which he had aspired most of his adult life, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Helen Herron Taft died in 1943, thirteen years after her husband's death. Well that’s everything I learned about my first lady I hoped you enjoyed learning about Helen Herron Taft, before, during, and after the presidency of William H. Taft.