This Associated Press photo of Grace and Calvin Coolidge just after they became President and First Lady following the death of Warren G. Harding showed up in my email box this morning. It was taken in their apartment at the Willard Hotel on August 6, 1923. The President is wearing a mourning armband and the First Lady’s eyes, those eyes, speak volumes.
Although Lucy and Rutherford B. Hayes are the first President and First Lady to be affiliated with GLOs, they were Honorary Members. Delta Kappa Epsilon and Kappa Kappa Gamma honored them with membership privileges.
Grace and Calvin Coolidge, were the first First Couple to have been initiated into GLOs as college students. She was a charter of the Pi Beta Phi chapter at the University of Vermont and he was a Phi Gamma Delta at Amherst College.
Laura and George W. Bush are the second First Couple to follow in the Coolidge’s footsteps. She is a Kappa Alpha Theta and he is a Delta Kappa Epsilon, as was his father, George Herbert Walker Bush.
George W. Bush’s mother, Barbara Bush, attended Smith College, one of the Seven Sister colleges, before she married George H.W. Bush. In her post White House years, she was invited to become an Alumna Initiate of Pi Beta Phi. She accepted the invitation and she was initiated by then Grand President Sarah Ruth “Sis” Mullis at the home of a Houston Pi Phi, who was a very close friend of the Bushes.
Here’s the full list of Presidents and First Ladies who have been fraternity and sorority members as well as a similar list of Vice Presidents.
