List of First Lady of the United States firsts

This list lists achievements and distinctions of various first ladies of the United States. It includes distinctions achieved in their earlier life and post-first lady service.

There have been forty-two official first ladies and forty-five first ladyships. This discrepancy exists because some presidents remarried while in office and some were not married so had no official first lady.

Also note that first ladies not recognized by the National First Ladies' Library listing include Martha Jefferson Randolph, Emily Donelson, Sarah Yorke Jackson, Angelica Van Buren, Priscilla Tyler, Mary McElroy, Rose Cleveland, Mary McKee, and Margaret Woodrow Wilson.

Martha Washington

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Martha Washington 1902 issue stamp
  • First first lady.[1]
  • First first lady to be born in Virginia.[2]
  • First first lady to have been born in the 18th century.[2]
  • First first lady to have had children when she became first lady.[2]
  • First first lady to outlive her children.[2]
  • First first lady to outlive her husband.[2]
  • First first lady to be older than her husband.[2]
  • First first lady (and first American woman) to appear on a U.S. postage stamp.[3]

Abigail Adams

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  • First first lady to be born in Massachusetts.[4]
  • First first lady to serve as Second Lady and First Lady on the same day.[5]
  • First first lady to live in the White House.[6]
  • First first lady to have biological children with a husband who was a President. [7]
  • First first lady to be the mother of another President (John Quincy Adams).[8]

Martha Jefferson Randolph

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  • First first lady to not be the wife of the President.[9]

Dolley Madison

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1848 photographic portrait of Dolley Madison
  • First first lady to be born in North Carolina.[10]
  • First first lady to have a parrot as a pet at the White House.[11]
  • First first lady given an honorary seat on the floor of Congress.[12]
  • First first lady to respond to a telegraph message.[12]
  • First first lady to be taller than the President.[13]
  • First first lady to be photographed.[13]

Louisa Adams

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  • First first lady born outside of the United States; she was born in England.[14]
  • First first lady to have both houses of the United States Congress adjourn in mourning on the day of her funeral.[15]

Sarah Yorke Jackson

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Anna Harrison

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  • First first lady to be born in New Jersey.[16]
  • First first lady to be widowed while holding the title.[17]
  • First first lady to be granted by law a pension as a president's widow.[18]
  • First first lady to be the grandmother of a president.[12]

Letitia Tyler

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  • First first lady to die in the White House.[19]

Julia Tyler

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  • First first lady to marry a president who was already in office at the time of the wedding.[20]

Sarah Polk

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Abigail Fillmore

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  • First first lady to hold a job while married (she was a teacher).[21]
  • First first lady to establish a permanent White House library.[22]

Harriet Lane

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Mary Todd Lincoln

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Julia Grant

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Lucy Hayes

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  • First first lady to be born in Ohio.[26]
  • First first lady to earn a college degree.[27]
  • First first lady to ban all alcoholic beverages from the White House.[12]
  • First first lady to host an Easter Egg roll on the White House lawn.[23]

Frances Cleveland

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  • First first lady to marry in the White House.[28]

Caroline Harrison

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  • First first lady to use electricity.[12]
  • First first lady to raise a Christmas tree in the White House.[29]
  • First first lady to have written a speech she delivered herself.[29]

Edith Roosevelt

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  • First first lady to be born in Connecticut.[30]
  • First first lady to travel abroad while in office.[31]

Helen Taft

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  • First first lady to own and drive a car.[12]
  • First first lady to ride in her husband's inaugural parade.[12]
  • First first lady to support women's suffrage.[12]
  • First first lady to publish her memoirs.[12]
  • First first lady to smoke cigarettes.[12]
  • First first lady to successfully lobby for safety standards in federal workplaces.[12]
  • First first lady to plant the first cherry tree saplings that are along Washington, D.C.'s Tidal Basin.[32]
  • First first lady to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.[32]
  • First sitting first lady to turn 50.[33]

Edith Wilson

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  • First first lady to unofficially assume presidential functions.[23]

Florence Harding

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  • First first lady to vote.[12]
  • First first lady to fly in an airplane.[12]
  • First first lady to operate a movie camera.[12]
  • First first lady to own a radio.[12]
  • First first lady to invite movie stars to the White House.[12]

Grace Coolidge

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  • First first lady to born in Vermont.[34]
  • First first lady to earn a four-year undergraduate degree.[35]
  • First first lady to speak in sound newsreels.[12]

Lou Hoover

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  • First first lady to be born in Iowa.[36]
  • First first lady to make regular nationwide radio broadcasts.[37]

Eleanor Roosevelt

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Eleanor Roosevelt (FDR Memorial)
  • First first lady to hold regular press conferences.[12]
  • First first lady to write a daily newspaper column and to write a monthly magazine column.[12]
  • First first lady to host a weekly radio show.[12]
  • First first lady to fly in an airplane while first lady; she flew with Amelia Earhart in April 1933.[38]
  • First first lady to speak at a national party convention (1940).[39]
  • First first lady to be depicted as part of a presidential memorial (the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial).[40]
  • First first lady (and only) to serve in the role for 12 years (1933–1945); to date.[41]

Bess Truman

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  • First first lady to live to the age of 97.[42]

Mamie Eisenhower

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  • First first lady to initiate Halloween decorations to be put up in the White House.[43]

Jacqueline Kennedy

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Lady Bird Johnson

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  • First first lady to be born in Texas.[46]

Pat Nixon

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Pat Nixon speaking at the Republican National Convention
  • First first lady to be born in Nevada.[47]
  • First first lady to enter a combat zone.[48]
  • First first lady to travel to Africa,[49] the People's Republic of China, and the Soviet Union.[50]
  • First first Lady to model trousers in a national magazine.[51]
  • First first lady to address a Republican National Convention (in 1972).[52]

Betty Ford

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  • First first lady to be born in Illinois.[53]
  • First first lady to have a successful battle against dependency on drugs and alcohol, and openly talk about it.[53]

Rosalynn Carter

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  • First first lady to keep her own office in the East Wing.[12][54]
  • First first lady to have a VCR in the White House.[12][54]
  • First first lady to have been married for 77 years.[55]

Nancy Reagan

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Barbara Bush

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Hillary Clinton

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  • First first lady to earn a postgraduate degree.[68]
  • First first lady to have her own professional career up to the time of entering the White House.[68]
  • First first lady to wear trousers in an official first lady portrait.[69]
  • First first lady with an office in the West Wing.[70]
  • First first lady to win a Grammy Award.[71]
  • First first lady to be subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury.[72]
  • First first lady to run for and to win elected office (for senator from New York in 2000).[73]
  • First first lady to march in an LGBT pride parade (2000).[74]
  • First first lady to run for president (election in 2008).[12][75]
  • First first lady to be nominated for president by a major U.S. political party (specifically, the Democratic Party, in 2016).[76][73]
  • First first lady to serve as Chancellor at Queen's University Belfast (began 5-year term in January 2020).[77][78]
  • First first lady to be an electoral college elector (election in 2020).[79]

Laura Bush

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  • First first lady to give birth to twins.[12][80][81]
  • First first lady to substitute for the president in the president's weekly radio address.[12][82]
  • First incumbent first lady to have a mother-in-law who was also a first lady.[62][63]

Michelle Obama

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Melania Trump

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  • First first lady not to have been born a citizen of the United States or in what would later become the United States.[a] She was naturalized in 2006.[91][92][93]
  • First first lady to be fluent in a Slavic language.[94]
  • First first lady to fly in a V-22 Osprey aircraft.[95]

Jill Biden

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Though Louisa Adams was born outside of the United States, she was the daughter of an American father - Joshua Johnson, the American Consul in London - and American citizenship was, therefore, her birthright.[89][90]

References

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  3. ^ Historian. May 2020. "Women Subjects on United States Postage Stamps" United States Postal Service. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  4. ^ History.com editors. (October 27, 2019)."Abigail Adams" Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  5. ^ The White House. "Abigail Smith Adams" Retrieved January 10, 2021.
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  10. ^ a b "Dolley Madison, North Carolina's Legendary First Lady". Retrieved July 30, 2020.
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