Rose Cleveland

Newly elected President Grover Cleveland, a bachelor at the time, asked his sister, Rose, to serve as White House Hostess at the beginning of his first administration in 1885. The job was tedious for scholarly Rose, whose academic specialty was the Middle Ages. After Grover’s marriage to Frances Folsom, she pursued her writing career, publishing a successful novel titled The Long Run as well as serving as editor for the scholarly magazine Literary Life. Rose met and fell in love with Evangeline Simpson while vacationing in Florida. Evangeline eventually entered a conventional marriage, but after widowhood, the two resumed their intimate relationship. Rose and Evangeline lived as partners in Bagni di Lucca, Tuscany, until Rose succumbed to the Spanish flu in 1918.