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Lucy
Webb Hayes
Date of Birth: Aug 28, 1831
Date of Death: June 25, 1889
Age at death: 57
Married: Dec 30, 1852 Rutherford Hayes
Children: 8 |
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- As a graduate of Wesleyan Female College,
Lucy had definite liberal political views, and would be the influencing
factor in convincing her husband to join the new ant-slavery
Republican party
- After her husband became president
Lucy and her friends, members of the National Women's Christian
Temperance League, convinced him to ban alcohol from the White
House
- The official decree received national
attention and earned her the nickname "Lemonade Lucy"
- Other changes included cancellation
of the inaugural ball, a no smoking policy, and worship services
twice a week
- Mrs. Hayes changed the Billiard Room
to a mini conservancy, and often used flowers as gifts for reporters,
visitors and local hospital patients
- In honor of their twenty-fifth wedding
anniversary, Lucy and Rutherford renewed their vows at a White
House ceremony
- Much to the envy of friends, she wore
the same unaltered 25 year-old gown
- Her morality was admired by many women
of the day, and gained Mrs. Hayes favorable press
- In one such article published in The
Independent, a local reporter, Mary Clemmer Ames, referred
to her as "First Lady"- a title now standardized for
the wife of a president
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