First Ladies' Maiden Names Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dandridge

Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (1731-1802) was the first first lady of the nation (although the term was not coined until after she died). Known as "Lady Washington, she was married to George from 1759 until his death in 1799. Prior to that, she had been married to Daniel Parke Custis, with whom she had four children.

Answer: Robinson

Michelle Obama became First Lady to the 44th President of the United States when her husband was inaugurated on January 20, 2009. Prior to her marriage in 1992, Michelle Robinson had been born in Chicago, Illinois. She attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School. As first lady she championed causes such as poverty awareness, the need for physical activity and good nutrition.

Answer: Folsom

I had to include Frances Folsom Cleveland because she was the first first lady who served for two non-consecutive terms, i.e., from 1886 to 1889, and again from 1893 to 1897. At the time, Frances was the youngest first lady, and the first to be married in the White House. She was born in Buffalo, New York in 1864, and died in Baltimore, Maryland in 1947.

Answer: Henry

Lou Henry married Herbert Hoover in 1899. The couple traveled extensively and Lou became a linguist and a scholar. She served as First Lady from 1929 to 1933. She was the first first lady to make radio broadcasts to the nation, where she spoke on topics like the Girl Scouts and the need for volunteer labor in community services during the depression. Lou was born in 1874 and died in 1944.

Answer: Axson

Ellen Axson Wilson was the first wife of Woodrow Wilson; they were married from 1885 until her death from Bright's disease in 1914. She was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1860 to a slave-owning family, and later studied at the Art Students League of New York. She and Woodrow had three daughters, two of whom were married in the White House.

Answer: Dent

The fifth of eight children, Julia Boggs Dent was born in 1826 at Whitehaven plantation, near St. Louis, Missouri. Her family was distantly related to Confederate General James Longstreet. She was an avid reader, pianist and horsewoman. Julia was the first first lady to be recorded on film, and an early advocate of women's rights. She died in 1902 and is interred in Grant's Tomb.

Answer: Powers

The daughter of a Baptist minister, Abigail Powers was born in 1798 in Stillwater, New York. Her father died shortly after she was born. Educated by her mother, Abigail became a teacher and the first first lady to continue working after her marriage. She and Millard married in 1826. She became Second Lady from 1849 to 1850 and, after Zachary Taylor's death, First Lady from 1850 to 1853.

Answer: Donelson

Born in 1767, Rachel Donelson was one of eleven children; the family moved from Virginia to Tennessee. At eighteen, Rachel married Lewis Robards and they moved in with his widowed mother in Kentucky. When the marriage began to fail, Rachel moved back home and, in 1769, met Andrew Jackson. Amid tales of scandal, the two married and moved into the Hermitage where Rachel died days after the election.

*Since Rachel died prior to the inauguration in 1829, her niece, Emily Donelson, served as First Lady.

Answer: Herron

Helen "Nellie" Herron, born in 1861, was the fifth of ten children of a prominent Ohio lawyer. Schooled in the arts, Nellie dreamed of becoming a renowned writer or musician. She met William Howard Taft in 1879 but they did not marry until 1886. She became the first first lady to ride in her husband's inaugural parade in 1909, and the only woman to be both first lady and wife of a chief justice.

Answer: Saxton

We often think of first ladies as having exciting, fulfilling lives. Sadly, such was not the case with Ida Saxton McKinley (1847-1907) who served as first lady from 1897 until the assassination of her husband William in 1901. Prior to her husband's death, Ida lost her mother and her two young daughters within a short time.

She developed epilepsy and became totally dependent upon her husband.

Answer: Smith

Abigail Smith was born in 1744 in Weymouth, Massachusetts. She was a descendant of the well-known Quincy family of the Massachusetts colony. In 1764 Abigail married John Adams (her third cousin), and they had six children. Abigail became the first Second Lady (1789-1798) and the second First Lady (1797-1801).

She was also the first to be both the wife and the mother (John Quincy) of a president.

Answer: Gardiner

In 1844, two years after the death of his wife Letitia, John Tyler married Julia Gardiner, 30 years his junior. She was born on Gardiner's Island in New York in 1820. Tyler became president after the death of William Henry Harrison. Julia assumed her duties as First Lady from 1844 through March of 1845, when Tyler's presidency ended. Julia and John had seven children.

She died in 1889.

Answer: McCardle

Eliza McCardle Johnson (1810-1876) was yet another woman who was both a Second Lady (from March through April 1865) and a First Lady (from 1865 to 1869) after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. She was born in Tennessee, an only child. While still a teenager, she met and married Andrew Johnson in 1827; she was just sixteen and he was eighteen.

They had five children, all born in Greeneville, TN.

Answer: Childress

Born in 1803, Sarah Childress was the third of six children. Born to a prominent father, she was well-educated for a woman of the time. She met James at an instructor's house when he was 19 and she was just 12. They later courted and married in 1824. They never had children.

As a devout Presbyterian, she banned dancing, card games and liquor at official functions. She died in 1891 at 87.

Answer: Todd

Mary Todd was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1818. She was well-educated and moved to Springfield, Illinois while still in her teens. Before she married Lincoln, she was courted by his rival Stephen Douglas. She saw her husband assassinated, outlived three of her four sons and had physical and psychological problems throughout her lifetime. She died in 1882.