Jimmy & Rosalyn Carter: How many times have the eldest President & First Lady been a married couple?

Factual Questions
21

Assuming Nancy Reagen doesn’t outlive one of them.

22

Here’s the current ages:

Nancy Reagan - 90
Barbara Bush - 86
Rosalynn Carter - 84
Laura Bush - 64
Hillary Clinton - 63
Michelle Obama - 47

George H.W. Bush - 87
Jimmy Carter - 86
George W. Bush - 65
Bill Clinton - 65
Barack Obama - 50

So the odds are strong that the Carters, the senior Bushes, and Nancy Reagan will go before anyone else does - there’s about a twenty year gap there. The Clintons and the younger Bushes are virtually the same age so it’s anyone’s guess who’ll outlive who there. Then there’s another big gap before you reach the Obamas. And their future status will depend on who gets elected. The current Republican candidates range from Ron Paul (76) to Thad McCotter (45).

23

Two questions

  1. Which First Lady lived the longest? Is it Nancy Reagan or someone else?
  2. A month ago I was watching one of the “On the Road with Charles Kuralt” and in the mid 1970s he interviews Alf Landon, loser in the 1936 election “As Maine goes, so goes Vermont”. Landon reached 100. Any other major party nominee do this?
24

And what is the record for First Ladies living at one time?

25

It was Bess Truman, who lived to be 97.

Eleven, although this includes First Ladies who weren’t wives.

26

You mean “who were widows”? They count

Could you list them?

27

No, I was saying there were eleven if you count sisters, daughters-in-law, and nieces who acted as First Ladies.

There were two occasions when there were eleven living First Ladies:

June 2, 1886 to August 23, 1887
Sarah Jackson (Andrew Jackson’s daughter-in-law)
Priscilla Tyler (John Tyler’s daughter-in-law)
Julia Tyler (John Tyler’s wife)
Sarah Polk (James Polk’s wife)
Harriet Lane (James Buchanan’s niece)
Julia Grant (Ulysses Grant’s wife)
Lucy Hayes (Rutherford Hayes’ wife)
Lucretia Garfield (James Garfield’s wife)
Mary McElroy (Chester Arthur’s sister)
Rose Cleveland (Grover Cleveland’s sister)
Frances Cleveland (Grover Cleveland’s wife)

March 4, 1889 to June 25, 1889
Priscilla Tyler (John Tyler’s daughter-in-law)
Julia Tyler (John Tyler’s wife)
Sarah Polk (James Polk’s wife)
Harriet Lane (James Buchanan’s niece)
Julia Grant (Ulysses Grant’s wife)
Lucy Hayes (Rutherford Hayes’ wife)
Lucretia Garfield (James Garfield’s wife)
Mary McElroy (Chester Arthur’s sister)
Rose Cleveland (Grover Cleveland’s sister)
Frances Cleveland (Grover Cleveland’s wife)
Caroline Harrison (Benjamin Harrison’s wife)

The last First Lady who was not the wife of a President was Helen Bones. She was Woodrow Wilson’s cousin and served as First Lady between the death of his first wife, Ellen, and his marriage to his second wife, Edith.