A 2013 - 2014 original C-SPAN feature series telling the stories of America's First Ladies - from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama -
through conversations with top experts, video tours of historic sites, and questions from C-SPAN's audience.

America's First Ladies — from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama
Ida McKinley
First Lady: 1897 - 1901
Click the list to watch videos
  • Ida McKinley Program
  • Up Next: Ida McKinley
  • Pres. McKinley's handling of his wife's illness
  • Illness and relationship with her husband
  • Richard Norton Smith on the McKinley's relationship
  • Hand-Crocheted Slippers
  • As A Political Partner
  • Her Role in the Front Porch Campaigns
  • Early Life in Canton, Ohio
  • Mourning Her Husband's Death
  • Letters from Ida McKinley
  • Her Dresses
  • Motherhood
  • A brief introduction to Ida McKinley

Biography

Ida McKinley

William McKinley
Author Ellen Maury Slayden on Mrs. McKinley: “President McKinley’s wife...was seen by the few who ever got close enough to form an opinion as the cross he bore gallantly...Though not an old woman—she would pass her fiftieth birthday three months after moving to the White House—she was always described as old. She was small and pale; were it not for her ivory skin and hands, she would have seemed gaunt. Her heart had been broken by the loss of two children..."

Born - June 8, 1847 in Canton, Ohio

Parents - James Asbury Saxton & Katherine Dewalt Saxton

Married - January 25, 1871 to William McKinley

Children - Katherine (1872 – 1875),
Ida (1873)

Education - Brook Hall Seminary in Media, Pennsylvania

Died - May 26, 1907 in Canton, Ohio

Click here to see full bio of Ida McKinley

 
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