Frances Cleveland

Frances Cleveland
22ndFirst Lady of the United States
In office June 2, 1886 – March 3, 1889
Preceded by	Rose Cleveland
Succeeded by	Caroline Harrison
24thFirst Lady of the United States
In office March 4, 1893 – March 4, 1897
Preceded by	Mary Harrison McKee
Succeeded by	Ida Saxton McKinley
Personal details
Born	(1864-07-21)July 21, 1864 Buffalo, New York
Died	October 29, 1947(1947-10-29) (aged 83)
Spouse(s)	Grover Cleveland (1886-1908) Thomas J. Preston, Jr. (1913-1947)
Relations	Oscar Folsom
Children	5
Occupation	First Lady of the United States

Frances Clara Folsom Cleveland Preston (July 21, 1864 – October 29, 1947), wife of the President of the United States, Grover Cleveland, and First Lady of the United States from 1886 to 1889, and again from 1893 to 1897.

Biography

Born Frances Clara Folsom in Buffalo, New York, the daughter of Oscar Folsom, a lawyer, and Emma Harmon-Folsom. She was their only child to survive infancy (a sister Nellie Augusta died before her first birthday). A longtime close friend of Oscar Folsom, Grover Cleveland, at age 27, met his future wife shortly after she was born. He took an avuncular interest in the child, buying her a baby carriage and otherwise doting on her as she grew up. When her father died in a buggy accident in 1875 without having written a will, the court appointed Cleveland administrator of his estate. This brought Cleveland into still more contact with Frances, then age 11.

She attended Central High School in Buffalo and went on to Wells College in Aurora, New York. Sometime while she was in college, Cleveland's feelings for her took a romantic turn. He proposed by letter in August 1885, soon after her graduation. They did not announce their engagement, however, until just five days before the wedding.

Frances Folsom, age 21, married President Cleveland, age 49, on June 2, 1886, at the White House. Cleveland was the only president to be married in the White House itself (John Tyler had married while president but in New York). The President worked as usual on his wedding day. The ceremony, a small affair attended by relatives, close friends and the cabinet and their wives, was performed at 7 p.m. in the Blue Room of the White House by the Reverend Byron Sutherland, assisted by the Reverend William Cleveland, the groom's brother. The words "honor, love, and keep" were substituted for "honor, love and obey". John Philip Sousa and the Marine Band provided the music. The couple spent a five-day honeymoon at Deer Park in the Cumberland Mountains of Maryland.

Frances Folsom married President Grover Cleveland on June 2, 1886, becoming the First Lady of the United States.

The new First Lady was the subject of intense media interest. She took over the duties of being White House hostess, and her charm won her popularity. She held two receptions a week—one on Saturday afternoons, when women with jobs were free to come. Cleveland's sister Rose Cleveland had been her bachelor brother's hostess in the first 15 months of his first term of office. After her brother's marriage, Rose gladly gave up the duties of hostess for her own career in education.

After losing the U.S. presidential election, 1888, the Clevelands lived in New York City. Upon leaving the White House at the end of Cleveland's first term, Frances is reported to have told the staff to take care of the building since the Clevelands would be returning in four years. She proved correct, becoming the only First Lady to preside at two nonconsecutive administrations.

The Clevelands had three daughters and two sons:

• Ruth Cleveland (1891-1904)
• Esther Cleveland (1893-1980)
• Marion Cleveland (1895-1977) - Born in Buzzard's Bay, MA, she attended Columbia University Teachers College and married first Stanley Dell and second, in 1926, John Amen, a New York lawyer. During 1943-1960 she was community relations director of the Girl Scouts of America at its headquarters in New York.
• Richard Folsom Cleveland (1897-1974) - lawyer. Born in Princeton, NJ, he served as an officer in the Marines during World War I, graduated from Princeton University in 1919, receiving a master's degree in 1921 and from Harvard Law School in 1924. He practiced law in Baltimore.
• Francis Grover Cleveland (1903-1995) - actor. Born in Buzzard's Bay, Massachusetts, he graduated from Harvard University with a degree in drama. After teaching for a time in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he went to New York to enter the theatre. Eventually he settled in Tamworth, New Hampshire, where he served as selectman and operated a summer stock company, the Barnstormers.

Frances Cleveland
by Anders Zorn (1899)

After Cleveland's death in 1908, she remained in Princeton, New Jersey. On February 10, 1913 she married Thomas J. Preston, Jr., a professor of archaeology at Princeton University. She was the first presidential widow to remarry. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, she led the Needlework Guild of America in its clothing drive for the poor. She died on October 29, 1947, in Baltimore and was buried next to the president at Princeton.

References

• Original text based on White House biography