Mamie Eisenhower

Mamie Doud’s pampered childhood did not prepare her for the anxiety-filled life of a military wife. As General Dwight Eisenhower’s fame soared during World War II, Mamie’s solitude and loneliness accelerated, straining their marriage. Once Dwight became President, having her husband frequently under the same roof in the White House was balm for Mamie’s soul, and she relished her popularity as First Lady. Her flair for fanciful entertainment was in harmony with the postwar years of celebration after a long-fought war. Aware of the racial injustice so prevalent in the 1950s, she opened the grounds of the White House Easter Egg Roll to black children for the first time.