Best and worst First Ladies

Didn't Florence Harding poison her husband? That would probably move her to the top of the "worst" list.

Jacqueline Kennedy was our greatest First Lady!

[quote]Didn't Florence Harding poison her husband? That would probably move her to the top of the "worst" list.

If Melania did that, it would move her to the top of the "best" list.

Eleanor Roosevelt was a mystery guest on "What's My Line?" Top that, Mamie Doud Eisenhower!

My secret wife, Irving, was no prize, either.

R2. Read a book or two about Jackie Kennedy. She looked good in clothes but she wasn’t a great First Lady.

Jackie Kennedy is my personal favorite.

I'm sure my posting history makes my least favorite pretty obvious.

Nancy fucked Sinatra upstairs in the WH. Where does that place her.

R8, upstairs in the White House and under Sinatra, I assume.

Chasten Buttigieg was the worst.

R1, oddly, if Melania did the same thing to her husband...

It’s pretty sad how many people take gossip as fact.

Favorite would be a tie between Eleanor Roosevelt & Dolley Madison.

Worst = Nancy Reagan

(and worst mother-in-law would be Bess Truman's mother)

I don't like the OP contemplating whether or not Mary Lincoln is the worst. Years ago there was a 6-hour documentary on PBS called "Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided," and not only did Mary suffer from severe depression and became increasingly unstable, but she was treated horribly after her husband's murder, fueling her insanity. Evaluating someone's place in history based on her illness doesn't seem quite right.

Why leave Melania out?

She is the worst human being ever to fill the role of president's spouse. She is vapid, greedy, hateful, ignorant, detached, and disconnected to anything recognizably decent, American or humane.

Every other First Lady rises in estimation compared to that evil woman.

And, no, Mrs. Harding did not kill her husband. Nor did she long outlive him.

Be best, R14!

R13, I was making that exact point.

A h e m.

Margaret Taylor is my favorite first lady. She didn't really want any of the responsibilities and duties the role entailed so her daughter did the hostessing duties for state dinners and the like. No one in official Washington political or social circles knew what she looked like. Zachary Taylor's political opponents attempted to use her unwillingness to be a public first lady by insisting she was an uncouth backwoods woman with no social graces and so embarrasing that the Taylor administration made her live in the White House attic and wouldn't let her come downstairs. Not true. She was apparently a refined woman, just didn't want to do any of the public or social duties. When Zachary Taylor died, artists illustrating him on his deathbed had no idea how to portray her as they didn't know what she look like so they depicted her as sitting by his bedside with her face buried in a hankerchief as she was crying so hard.

Lady Bird Johnson. Her "Make America Beautiful" campaign really did have a positive effect on the country. Second, I would say Jackie Kennedy. She set a tone of elegance and refinement that did influence design and popular culture in the early 60s.

Coincidence that several Republican First Ladies were drunks. Mamie, Thelma (aka Pat) and Betty. Nancy serviced Frank Sinatra as a “starlet” before Ronnie “discovered” her. Babs just looked like the Quaker Oats guy and Laura liked her Pall Malls. Now we have a pole dancer who was shown her titties and hoo-hoo to the world.

And worst, without a doubt is Melania. I do admire her rise from call girl to First Lady but she obviously doesn't want to do the work. She IS skilled at picking out stylish designer clothes, but that's about it.

Another vote for Lady Bird, who was also acting First Lady during Jackie’s frequent absences from the White House.

"Gets a lot of flack"

Oh Dear!

Mamie is my favorite for putting stuck up, greedy Jackie O in her place.

Julia Tyler, wife of John Tyler and First Lady from 1844 to 1845. She was pretty awful, aggressively pro-slavery despite having grown up in East Hampton. Prior to the Civil War she wrote a passionate defense of slavery.

[quote]And worst, without a doubt is Melania. I do admire her rise from call girl to First Lady but she obviously doesn't want to do the work.

Melania seems less like a first lady and more like a character in a Jackie Collins potboiler.

Julia Tyler was quite grand R25. She didn't want to be called the First Lady, but the Lovely Lady Presidentress. She wore a tiara and had ladies in waiting. After the Civil War she was quite impoverished, widowed with 7 children to take care of and she spent a lot of time lobbying for a former first lady government pension.

Mrs. Tyler sounds like a real bitch.

I was surprised to find out how fiery and politically-minded the first Mrs. Adams was. She would have snapped the current FLOTUS like a twig. Actually she probably would have snapped all of them like twigs.