European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 15, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine mwkyffffwnnymc0meu/ktojcnffwfwbmrftoi�� Wilton to their Day. T the Power of presidential wives  associated press he scenario is familiar the presidency is in crisis and the first lady balding to protect her Man Steps into while House a lairs As the nation wonders who s wearing the presidential pants. No in snot 1987, but 1919, when Woodrow Wilson was crippled by a stroke leaving he nation with a Petticoat government run by his wife As one senator put it. Nancy Reagan is not the first first lady to come under scrutiny for exerting unelected influence Over her husband s office. First ladies by tradition have often been relegated to stereotyped duties such As rearing the first family and picking Oul curtains for the White House. The Library of Congress cam1 catalogue offers entries including first ladies Cookbook and fits ladles in fashion. The history books also show another Side of presidential wives. Dolly Madison s parties gave he Hen new capital City is now institutionalized social scene and Sarah Polk helped her husband Writa speeches. Eliza Johnson wife of Andrew stood solidly by the Only president to to impeached during his trial. She proclaimed i knew he d be acquitted. I know  the Job s toil has Boon High. Betty Ford s drug and alcohol dependence was chronicled in a recent network movie. Mary Todd Lincoln taunted As a icel n a Union while House was declared insane years after her husband s assassination. This is nothing new in american history says Louis Gould an american history professor Al the University of Texas. Gould who is writing a Book on lady Bird Johnson says first ladies have often been unprepared for the superhuman demands of their unpaid Job. It changes their lives he said. President Reagan came to his wife s defense denouncing As despicable fiction reports that she had forced the resignation of chief of stall Donald Regan and was involved in government decision making. There is nothing to that he said and no one who knows her weft would Ever believe i still the controversy surrounding the first lady recalls he dominant Edith Wilson whom critics called Secrel president and pres Dentress As she protected her ailing husband. Mrs. Wilson also look it upon herself to oversee White House personnel after the 62-year-old Wilson was incapacitated by a stroke in october 1919. The secretaries of state and the Treasury As Well As two key Wilson aides All fall her Wrath. Mrs. Wilson the president s second wife took control of his Agenda controlling what papers he signed and who got in to see him. Sho stood her guard until Wilson s term ended nearly 18 months after he fell ill. The first lady s dominance Ted sen. Albert fall of new Mexico to complain to colleagues mrs. Wilson is president. We have a Petticoat government she responded in memoirs years la Lor. Calling fail a provincial Westerner of Small  fall demanded to see Wilson and was granted a bedside audience. Mrs Wilson Sal nearby jotting Down their conversation for the record. In her Book my memoirs she explained that she had no designs on presidential Power. The Only decision that was mine was what was important and what was not she wrote. But Wilson scholar Arthur link says history has been unkind to the woman Wilson called Little girl link director of the Woodrow Wilson papers at Princeton University in Mew Jersey says the charges that mrs. Wilson ran the government Are a lot of  she was protective. Her predominant concern was about her husband and his health said link who spoke with mrs. Wilson Many limes before her death in 1961. Eleanor Roosevelt Wile of Franklin Roosevell was another first lady fio became a Public figure in her own right. Her weekly press conferences Lor the Ihen All female press corps assigned to her sometimes made More news than her Husland s. She acted As the legs for her husband who was crippled by polio and he sent her around the nation and world. She turned up in coveralls Al a depression Ridden West Virginia Coal mine and reportedly was targeted by spies in world War ii. But even the energetic mrs. Roosevelt was restricted by the undefined boundaries of her of says first lady expert Gould who believes the unelected position May rival the presidency As the toughest in Iho nation Eleanor Roosevell was a political partner of the president a very limited Junto partner he said. Sunday March 15, 1987 the stars and stripes Page w