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Edith Bolling Galt Wilson (October 15, 1872 — December 28, 1961), second wife of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, was First Lady of the United States from 1915 to 1921. She met the President in March 1915 and they married nine months later. President Wilson suffered a severe stroke in October 1919. Edith Wilson began to screen all matters of state and decided which were important enough to bring to the bedridden president. In doing so, she ''de facto'' ran the executive branch of the government for the remainder of the president's second term, until March 1921.〔Lamb, p. 119〕〔Young and Johnson, p. 91.〕 ==Early life== Edith Bolling was born October 15, 1872 in Wytheville, Virginia to circuit court judge William Holcombe Bolling and his wife Sarah "Sallie" Spears née White.〔Schneider and Schneider, p. 191.〕〔https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X5N1-CL3〕 Her birthplace is a contributing building in the Wytheville Historic District. Edith was a descendant of settlers who came to Virginia early in the British colonization of the Americas.〔Waldrup, p. 186.〕 Through her father, she was a direct descendant of Pocahontas, the daughter of the chief of the Powhatan tribe of Native Americans and her husband John Rolfe, one of the earliest English settlers of Virginia and the first man to cultivate tobacco as an export crop.〔Hatch, p. 42.〕 Rolfe's granddaughter, Jane, married Robert Bolling, a wealthy planter and merchant.〔 Edith was the seventh of 11 children,〔Mayo, p. 170.〕 two of whom died in infancy.〔McCallops, p. 1.〕 The Bollings claimed to have been quite wealthy prior to the American Civil War, but were forced to give up their plantation home after being unable to pay taxes on the land following the end of the war. William Bolling settled on his father's property in Wytheville, where most of his children were born.〔 The Bollings were staunch supporters of the Confederate States of America, and Edith was very proud of her Southern heritage. As was often the case with slaves freed after the war, the Bollings believed their former slaves were content with life on Rose Cottage Plantation and had little desire for freedom. It was only after the Civil War that William Bolling turned to the practice of law.〔 The Bolling household was a large one. In addition to the 9 surviving children, Edith's two grandmothers, several aunts, and some cousins also lived with the Bollings.〔 Most of these female relatives had lost their husbands during the war.〔Mayo, p. 169.〕 Edith had little formal education. Her sisters were enrolled in local schools, but she was not.〔Gould, p. 237.〕 Her paternal grandmother, Anne Wiggington Bolling, played a large role in educating her.〔 Crippled by a spinal cord injury, she was confined to bed〔 and had Edith wash her clothing, turn her in bed at night, and look after her 27 pet canaries. She also taught her granddaughter to read, write, speak a hybrid language of French and English, make dresses, crochet, knit, and embroider;〔〔McCallops, p. 2.〕 Furthermore she encouraged an appreciation for poetry and music in the young girl〔 and instilled in her a tendency to make quick judgments and hold strong opinions, personality traits Edith would exhibit her entire life.〔 William Bolling read classic English literature aloud to his family at night, hired a tutor to teach Edith,〔 and sometimes took her on his travels.〔 During her childhood, Edith was particularly impressed by the songs and folktales she heard. Every day, the family gathered in Grandmother Bolling's bedroom and listen to her sing songs and tell romantic stories of people who found true love;〔 these songs and stories also left a deep impression on Edith.〔〔 The Bollings attended church regularly; Edith would be a lifelong devout Episcopalian. When Edith was 15, her father enrolled her at Martha Washington College (a precursor of Emory and Henry College), a finishing school for girls in Abingdon, Virginia;〔 he chose it for its excellent music program.〔 She was miserable there, largely due to poor food, cold rooms,〔〔 and the rigorous, strictly-regimented routine.〔 She returned home after a single semester.〔 When she was 17, her father enrolled her in Powell's School for Girls in Richmond, Virginia;〔 this, she later said, was the happiest time of her life.〔 Powell's School closed at the end of the year after the headmaster suffered an accident that cost him his leg.〔〔McCallops, p. 3.〕 Concerned about the cost of Edith's education, William Bolling refused to pay for any additional schooling for her, choosing to send her three brothers to school instead,〔〔 a practical decision as a young 19th-century man would use a formal education to pursue a career, but a young woman would not. By this time, Edith had read very few books and her handwriting was nearly illegible.〔 While visiting her married sister in Washington, D.C., Edith met Norman Galt (1864-1908), a prominent jeweler; they married on April 30, 1896 and lived in the capital for the next 12 years. In 1903 she bore a son who only lived for a few days, and the difficult birth left her unable to have more.〔 In January 1908 her husband died unexpectedly at the age of 43. Edith hired a manager to run the business and lived sparsely until she managed to pay off its debts. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Edith Wilson」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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