We haven't had a First Lady this inspirational since... well, I'll just say it. Since Hillary.
And before Hillary, it would have been Rosalyn Carter, although she only had one term in which to make any impact, and she wasn't flashy. She was serious and committed to the same things her husband was, and was more on a peer level. She sat in on Cabinet meetings and MAN did that raise a ruckus from the "she doesn't know her 'proper place'" crowd. She got the same reaction Hillary would, later: "who the hell does she think she is?" Only a little less so, because it was really new. I feel great affection and sympathy for her because I felt she got a raw deal. I felt the same way toward Hillary (and I still do).
I also appreciated Lady Bird Johnson. She, too, was low-key, too (after all, how could anyone take attention from the bombastic LBJ?) but she was also ahead of her time. Her pet cause as First Lady was to "Beautify America." So she cared about planting more trees, adding flowering plants in public spaces, greening up the neighborhoods to improve the local surroundings. Seemed like a little thing back then, but by today's needs and priorities - it was VERY wise.
Before that, Jackie. Her time as First Lady was short, but MAN did she make an impact. FIRST First Lady I could relate to, as a kid, mainly because she had kids who were not too much younger than I was. A First Lady with dark hair, not gray, and more glamorous than matronly. So it was the first time, for me, that a First Lady was more of a mom than a grandma. She was also a LOT more chic and stylish than the older, more dowdy, and low-profile Mamie Eisenhower. I was pretty young back then. Mrs. Eisenhower didn't make much of an impression on me, other than a vague awareness that she existed. But when Jackie came on the scene - more like BURST onto the scene - it was a whole new thing, and she was such a dramatic contrast that she DID make an impression. It was unavoidable. A whole new decade, a whole new mood in the country, a whole new era - as, quite literally, the "old" gave way to "youth" and "fresh and new". The word "vigor" immediately burst into common usage.
Years later, for me anyway, Hillary's arrival would reflect that same thing. Coming out of the dowdy, elderly, white-haired old grandma
was a woman who was not too much older than I was. To whom it was SO much easier to relate on a personal level, for me, anyway.
Eleanor Roosevelt set the bar high, in the beginning, but I wasn't around then so I don't remember. That Presidency was long gone before I ever got here. I'm old - but not quite that old. But I learned enough about her to put her high up on my favorites list.
Oddly enough, I found I resonated a LOT more to Democratic First Ladies than to any GOP version. And Michelle Obama, in particular, is a marvel. For me she harkens back to Jackie, big-time. Jackie, but even better. A role model for the ages, for sure!
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