At first, this question may seem blatantly obvious. However, did you know some of the Presidents’ First Ladies were sisters or sister-in-laws? And, for the record, they were married. So, why would this be? And, now I ask again: Define “first lady”. - Jinx 
Really? Other than James Buchanan, who used his niece as a hostess because he wasn’t married, can you show me even one President whose sister was a First Lady? I know that some of them were distant cousins, as in the case of FDR, but I can’t think of a single President that married his sister.
Weren’t a few of the presidents made widowers while in the White House?
Chester A. Arthur, apparently. It looks indeed like several presidents had a stand-in relative (or in the case of Jefferson, friend) for first lady if the president was a widower (or in the case of Buchanan and Cleveland, bachelor).
Info hence: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Lady_of_the_United_States
I had forgotten about the widowers. Nice cite, Achernar. 
Still, I didn’t see any sisters listed there, Jinx. Anybody have a cite for a President marrying his sister?
…and that was covered in BobLibDem’s cite.
Forgive me, guys. It’s early.
Whoa, hey, just to be clear, no president married his sister! If a woman other than “wife” is listed, it means she fulfilled the role of First Lady without actually being married to the President.
As to the title of this thread, “First Lady” of the USA is defined as, “The hostess of the White House. If the POTUS is married to a woman, she is the FLOTUS; otherwise some other FLOTUS is appointed.”
My understanding of the title is that it comes from the traditions of social precedence. The President ranks first in precedence, entering rooms first on social occasions, and so on. The President’s wife similarly is the first in precedence, entering before others, hence “First Lady.”
We don’t use any title like that in Canada for our Prime Minister’s wife, because technically she would be “Third Lady.” She ranks behind the monarch’s spouse (Prince Philip) and the spouse of the Governor-General (John Raulston Saul), because the Queen and the GG both take precedence over the Prime Minister.
So Prince Phillip is the First Lady of England?
Does there have to be a First Lady ? Is there any precedence of there not being any ? And does the title get affixed to one lady only (within a term) ? What if Hugh Heffner became President ?
This brings to mind a related question I’ve had on my mind for some time: when we in the USA elect our first female president, what will her husband be called? (Besides “Bill”, of course. :eek: ) First Man? First Gentleman? First Lord?
Well, when I was in about third grade, I read a book - I believe it was one of the Bingo Brown series - in which the main character fantasized about his love interest becoming President and referred to himself as the First Husband.
I read a book in which there was a female president and her husband was called First Gentleman, which I think is a good term.
–Cliffy
By tradition, a person is addressed by their highest previous rank, even if it’s no longer held. The first man in that position will still be addressed as “President Clinton”.
So, would invitations go out as President and President Clinton?
I thought that ex-Presidents were properly addressed by the highest office they held other than president or vice-president. Therefore, we now have Congressman Ford, Governor Carter, Governor Reagan, Ambassador Bush, and Governor Clinton.
I’ve never heard presidents referred to as anything other than “former president”. And for that matter, I believe that “ex-president” is offensive, much like the phrase “ex-Marine”.
No, I stand by myself. Miss Manners is never wrong about etiquette.
According to Miss Manners, this is correct.