The First Lady Who Was President
How Edith Wilson became de facto President of the United States
A marriage that began with an air of scandal gave way to a strong partnership for a wartime president and his wife. But a traumatic health scare led to the first de facto female executive of the United States.
Edith’s early life
Edith Bolling, born in 1872, was the daughter of a circuit court judge from southwest Virginia. Her education began at home and she later attended Martha Washington College and Powell’s School for Girls where she was a mediocre student. Her first husband, a jeweler named Norman Galt, died in 1908. Edith was left to manage his business and pay off his many debts.
Edith Bolling Galt met the recently widowed President Woodrow Wilson at a society event in March 1915 and the two were quickly taken with each other. However, due to his wife’s recent passing, a scandal arose around the new courtship. Wilson and Edith waited for one year of official mourning to pass before marrying on December 8, 1915.
