Herbert Hoover met Lou Henry in a geology lab at Stanford. Originally from Iowa she’d moved to California to benefit her mother’s health. Her father had taught her to hunt, become a fine horsewoman, learn taxidermy and she developed a love for geology. She was the first woman in Stanford’s geology department. The Hoovers married in 1899 and his mining engineer degree took them all over the world to live. After serving as President from 1929 to 1933 they returned to Palo Alto, to the home they designed which is now the office of the President of Stanford.

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the 6th cousin of Franklin Roosevelt and his mother encouraged the marriage. She actively supported and worked for the New Deal program, was both a civil rights advocate and worked to enhance the status of working women. She co-founded Freedom House and supported the formation of the UN, becoming both a delegate to the UN and chaired a committee that wrote and approved the universal Declaration of Human Rights. She was one of the most admired women of the 20th century.

Bess Truman was born Elizabeth Virginia Wallace in Independence, Mo., in 1885. Harry Truman moved to Independence in 1890 and met Bess in Sunday school. He described his first impression of her as "golden curls, and the most beautiful blue eyes" and there was never anyone else for him but her. All through grade school and high school they were together. He proposed to her in 1918 just before he was shipped off to war in France. They married in 1919 and after numerous miscarriages and 2 stillbirths, their only child Margaret was born in 1924. Though she moved with Harry to D.C. when he was elected, she was never interested in the formalities and pomp that surrounded the office.

Mamie Geneva Doud was an Iowa native but moved with her family to Colorado when she was 7 years old. She and her 3 sisters enjoyed life in their large Denver home in the summers while spending most winters with relatives in San Antonio. She met Dwight Eisenhower at Fort Sam Houston in 1915 while he was on his first tour of duty. She was very vivacious, attractive, dainty and saucy both in looks and attitude. On Valentine’s Day 1916 he gave her a miniature of his West Point ring which was the traditional engagement ring for West Pointers. They married at the family home in Denver on July 1.

Mamie became a traditional Army wife, following her husband from post to post and estimated that in his 37 years, she’d moved 27 times, each time a step upward in his career. Their first child born in 1917 died in 1921 of scarlet fever. Their son John was born in 1922 and grew up to have an Army career as well as an author and an ambassador to Belgium.

Mamie weathered the war years in Washington and after he was appointed president of Columbia University in 1948 they settled in Gettysburg, Pa. Due to his appointment as commander of N.A.T.O their home was not completed until 1955.

When he took office in 1953 the postwar boom brought air travel down to a more common level and they entertained a heretofore unprecedented number of heads of states and world leaders. Mamie enjoyed the life and was quite good at it. From 1961 until his death in 1969 they lived in Gettysburg. Both are buried in a small chapel on the grounds of the Eisenhower museum in Abilene, Kan.