Lucy Hayes

 Lucy Hayes

Lucy Hayes was the wife of President Rutherford B. Hayes wherein who served as First Lady from 1877 – 1881. Lucy Hayes was the first of our First Ladies to get a college degree. President Hayes banned alcohol from the White House and many years after she left, Lucy was nicknamed Lemonade Lucy due to her Christian beliefs and strong temperance movement politics. Her other influences in political affairs were that of the Women’s Suffrage movement and a strong advocate for African Americans both before and after the Civil War. She was also the first First Lady to invite a professional musician to the White House that was a former Slave. Due to Lucy’s sentiments about slavery, Rutheford decided to defend runaway slaves from Kentucky who entered Ohio. He over time became sympathetic toward their struggles and plight.

 Lucy became the first lady of Ohio when Rutherford Hayes became Governor. She accompanied him when he visited hospitals, prisons, facilities for the deaf and mute, along with mental hospitals. Although Hayes was twice elected as Governor, he wasn’t sure he wanted a third run. In 1875 he ran and won his third term and since it was a hard-fought race, it gained the attention of the Republican party.

In 1876, he was nominated for president under the Republication Party and after the 1876 election, Hayes wasn’t declared the winner until March of 1877. On March 1, 1877, the Hayes family boarded a train for Washington, DC not knowing if he was the President or not. They woke up the next morning when their train stopped in Harrisburg, PA to be told he was declared the President by Congress overnight.

Lucy held court in Washington, D.C. When her husband became a congressman. She accompanied him on Congressional visits to the Memphis and New Orleans race riots so they could better understand the issues and assess the damage caused.  During his time in Congress, she worked tirelessly on behalf of children and veterans. She enjoyed listening to the various debates in the congressional house to better understand her husband’s policies when he discussed them.

Having no female children, Lucy was not able to have a staff to assist her in taking care of events or stand in for her at various functions. Therefore, she enlisted her nieces, cousins, and friends' daughters to assist her in hosting various events and liven up the Hayes White House in turn.

Mrs. Hayes was the first wife of a President to be called “First Lady” by the newspapers due to many of the female reporters in the city loved to cover her and report on her progress as the First Lady of the Nation.

Mrs. Hayes was a kind woman who opened up her heart to the staff at the White House during the holidays. She was known to have hosted the staff, including secretaries and telegraph operators and their families for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  She was also the First Lady who had bathrooms installed inside the White House with running water for the convenience of the family, staff, and guests.

Mrs. Hayes decided to forego a renovation of the White House and instead enlarge and refurbish the greenhouse conservatories on the property.

As we look around Washington, DC today, we can see many things that had Lucy Hayes’s hand in completing, all you have to do is look at the Washington Monument to see her handiwork. She was the one who brought the Easter Egg hunt to the White House grounds after the children of Washington were barred from this activity on the Capitol Grounds.

Mrs. Hayes was close friends with some former and future first ladies of this nation, including visits to Martha Washington’s Mount Vernon, Dolly Madison’s Montpelier, visited with Sarah Polk, and Julia Tyler to whom she asked to be a hostess on occasion, along with Julia Grant. She became friendly with future first ladies such as Ida McKinley, Helen Taft, and Lucretia Garfield.

Mrs. Hayes is the one who orchestrated the creation of portraits of First Ladies to hang alongside former Presidents in the White House.  

Lucy had born eight children with Rutherford Hayes, but only five lived to adulthood.  Mrs. Hayes sustained a stroke in 1889 and died on June 25^th at the age of 57. She is buried with President Hayes in Spiegel National Cemetery in Fremont, Ohio.

Elizabeth Kilbride is a Writer and Editor with forty years of experience in writing with 12 of those years in the online content sphere. Graduating with an Associate of Arts from Pheonix University in Business Management, then a degree in Mass Communication and Cyber Analysis from Phoenix University, then on to Walden University for her master’s in criminology with emphasis on Cybercrime and Identity Theft and is currently studying for her Ph.D. degree in Criminology, her work portfolio includes coverage of politics, current affairs, elections, history, and true crime. In her spare time, Elizabeth is also a gourmet cook, life coach, and avid artist, proficient in watercolor, acrylic, pen and ink, Gouache, and pastels. As a political operative having worked on over 300 campaigns during her career, Elizabeth has turned many life events into books and movie scripts while using history to weave interesting storylines. She also runs 6 blogs that range from art to life coaching, to food, to writing, and opinion or history pieces each week.