Helen Taft was one First Lady who actually wanted the job. In fact she promoted her husband forcefully whenever she could. Nellie had her work cut out for her as her husband, William Howard Taft, was not politically ambitious and often remarked that he was not "foolish enough to run for the Presidency". When President Roosevelt (Teddy) wanted to nominate Taft for the Supreme Court, "Nellie", as she was known, demanded a private meeting with the President, wherein she convinced the President that the Supreme Court was not the place for her husband. Roosevelt ended up supporting Taft in the 1908 campaign for President. Taft won easily.
At a reception in the White House the day before the inauguration, Nellie wore a hat decorated with white egret feathers. One of the feathers caught fire in a gas jet and Nellie almost went up in smoke. Not to be deterred, she trimmed the burnt feathers and wore the hat to the inauguration anyway.
On inauguration morning, a fierce ice storm struck Washington, prompting the President-Elect to say, "I always said it would be a cold day [in hell] when I got to be President of the United States". Nellie did not see the humor in his comment. Her beautiful white satin inaugural ball gown was stuck on a stalled train. The inauguration parade had to be postponed. And the inauguration ceremony was moved indoors. Nellie was about to attain her goal of being First Lady and it seemed like a curse had been placed upon the inauguration.
At last Nellie saw her wish come true and she rode with the new President, her husband, in a motor car back to the White House. She was the first First Lady to be so visible and she confessed to being "elated". Washington's gossip mill, as well as some of the women's magazines of the time, referred to Nellie as the President's "alter ego". And indeed she was.
She took charge of everything in the White House. She could greet half a dozen guests to every one greeted by her husband. They became intensely close and had few friends. If she spotted her husband in a private conversation she would rush to his side to be certain he was not getting involved in anything of which she disapproved. She fired her husband's aides and the household staff at will. She hired a housekeeper who specialized in terror tactics. She got Congress to give her $12,000 to purchase motorcars for the First Family. She was more Queen than First Lady. The President said he felt like a "fish out of water" and indulged in his favorite sport which was eating. Eventually his weight ballooned and he had to hire a plumber to install a new - much larger - bathtub to accommodate his girth.
To Nellie's favor, she did start a program to beautify Washington and with the help of the Army built a bandstand along the Potomac where she and the President would motor to attend concerts by the Army Band. She sent out an order to America's nurseries for their cherry blossom trees to plant along Potomac Drive. When the trees died, the mayor of Tokyo sent two thousand more trees. They died too, but the mayor sent more trees and eventually the beautiful Spring time cherry blossoms became a Washington tradition.
