Fascinating First Ladies

**Madigan** (0:01)
Hi, I'm Madigan, and you're listening to Your Angry Neighborhood Feminist, a podcast that explores the world through a personal feminist perspective.
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another First Ladies themed episode. This one was so much fun, and I got the idea for this episode while I was looking at different ideas for First Ladies to cover on the show. And in the meantime, I read about some really interesting habits and such of different First Ladies from the past that I thought were really interesting. And I thought it would be fun to have an episode where I covered a variety of things rather than just focusing on one subject. Unfortunately, I thought there was gonna be a little bit more variety in the oddities this week. But this is pretty much going between two categories. There are strange pets, and there is spiritualism and mysticism.
I'm gonna start us off with the especially silly one and tell you about some of the strangest pets that have ever lived at the White House. Now, for those of you who are not American, it is so common and popular for the president to have a pet. In fact, I didn't even think about this, but I think Donald Trump might be the first president in a really long time not to have a pet in the White House. I'm gonna go look it up. Wow, he is the first American president in over a century not to own a dog. That's wild. Apparently, he said that owning a dog would feel phony and that he didn't have the time. It comes as no surprise to me that Donald Trump is an animal hater because he hates every living thing. And while dogs are by far the most common pet to have had at the White House, there are some truly strange animals that were living as domesticated pets with the first family.
I almost hate to do it, but I'm starting this episode with my favorite of the subjects, and that is Grace Coolidge and her raccoon, Rebecca.
I was really fascinated by Grace Coolidge from the little bits that I read about her, so I also added a very brief biography to go with this section. Grace Anna Goodhue was born in Burlington, Vermont, raised quite privileged and spoiled with love, as she was the only child to her parents, Andrew and Lamira. I think Lamira is such a beautiful name. She's a descendant of colonist William Goodhue and Congressman Benjamin Goodhue, who was in office from 1796 until 1800 in Massachusetts. Grace was very close to her mom as a child, and she'd follow her wherever she went. She would also take up the same household chores as her mother, such as sewing. Money and status was brought to her family when President Grover Cleveland appointed Grace's father as a steamboat inspector for the Burlington Port in late 1866 I had to Google this, apparently. That was a thing. In 1897, Grace enrolled at the University of Vermont, but ended up dropping out a year later due to an eye condition. I couldn't find any more info about this alleged eye condition, but it doesn't seem like it was a permanent issue. Instead of going to school, Grace focused on her hobbies, one of which was Glee Club, where she performed as a contralto, eventually becoming the class's vice president in her second year.
She eventually went back to the University of Vermont, and along with her buddy, Iva Gale, they founded Pi Beta Phi, a women's fraternity.
After graduating, Grace decided to teach at the Clark School for the Deaf, where a childhood friend of hers worked, and she would also teach elementary and middle school. She met Calvin Coolidge shortly after graduating. Grace was watering flowers outside when she saw a man through a window across the street. He was shaving, wearing only long underwear and a derby hat. This made her laugh, and Calvin heard it. He asked the landlord to introduce him to the laughing woman. Soon, they were a couple. Where Grace was boisterous and outgoing, Calvin was cool and calm. They seemed to go together well. The biggest difference between them were their political party preferences, it seems. Grace was raised a Democrat, but Calvin was a politician for the Republican Party. The couple married in October 1905 They had two sons, John, born in 1906, and Calvin Jr. in 1908
Calvin rose in the ranks in politics, becoming lieutenant governor in 1916, then full-long governor of Massachusetts in 1918
In 1920, he accepted the nomination to be vice president of the United States as the running mate of Warren G. Harding. He became vice president in 1921
Apparently, though, the Hardings and the Coolidgees weren't very fond of one another. When President Harding died suddenly in August of 1923, Calvin was called upon to become the president, making Grace the new First Lady. The nickname given to Grace by staff at the White House was Sunshine.