Edith Wilson First Spouse Gold Coin

Edith Bolling Galt Wilson was born in Wytheville, Virginia, on October 15, 1872. At 15, she went to Martha Washington College to study music and later to a smaller school in Richmond.

In 1896, she married her first husband, Norman Galt, who died unexpectedly in 1908. Through friends, she met President Woodrow Wilson and they married on December 18, 1915.

She has been described as America’s first woman president because of the important role she played after her husband’s stroke in 1919.

After they left the White House in 1921, President and Mrs. Wilson lived in Washington, where he died in 1924. She died there nearly 40 years later on the anniversary of her husband’s birthday: December 28, 1961.

Reverse Design

Doctors urged Edith Wilson to keep as much of the daily White House business from her husband as possible, which she did. She chose which visitors the President saw and what papers he reviewed. But she stated in her memoirs that she never made any major decisions on his behalf.

The design symbolizes Edith’s support for her husband after his stroke. His right hand holds a cane, while her left hand rests warmly on his.