Hannah Hoes Van Buren died 18 years before her husband, Martin Van Buren became President. One year and eight months after he took office he designated his new daughter in law, Angelica Singleton Van Buren to serve as hostess for the White House. Both women are included in the biography and bibliography

“The First Lady is going to be criticized no matter what she does. If she does too little. If she does too much. And I think you just have to be yourself and do the best you can. And so what? That’s the way it is.”

“I do not belong to the public; my character is wholly domestic, and the public have nothing to do with it.”

“There is one secret, and that is the power we all have in forming our own destinies.”

(letter to her husband) “Mrs. Walsh called here on Monday and wished me to write you to ask you to use your influence for her cousin. . . so you can see, I am already beset by office seekers”

“I just want to go down in history as the wife of the President.”

“I think it’s an important, legitimate role for a First Lady to look after a President’s health and well being. And if that interferes with other plans, so be it. No first lady need to make apologies for looking out for her husband’s personal welfare…The First Lady is, first of all, a wife.”

“We are not any one of us happy to be where we are but there’s nothing to be done about it except to do our best-and forget about the sacrifices and many unpleasant things that bob up.”

“We are here for four years. I do not look beyond that, as many things may occur in that time, but I am very anxious to see the family of the President provided for properly…”

“If I get into the White House, I will neither keep house nor make butter.”

“There is something in this great unsocial house which depresses my spirits beyond expression and makes it impossible for me to feel at home or to fancy that I have a home any where.”

“Oh how I wish he (Franklin Pierce) was out of political life! How much better it would be for him on every account!”

After praying mightily for her husband, Zachary Taylor, to lose the 1848 election, Margaret Taylor viewed the image of Washington with horror after the election.

“Of course, being mistress of the White House is a terrific responsibility, and I am truly grateful for my Army wife training.”

“I very well know every eye is upon me, my dear mother, and I will behave accordingly.”

“I don’t think that there is any doubt that the First Ladies have some influence on their husbands, because they are close to them, they talk with them all the time, they have the presidents’ ear. I don’t think there is any doubt about it.”