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From: "Peter McCrae" <>
Subject: [W-OBITS] MCKINLEY: Ida Saxton McKinley 1907
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2008 22:08:40 -0000

Ida Saxton McKinley
(View posts) Posted: 1 Dec 2008 7:09PM GMT

Classification: Obituary
Surnames: Saxton, McKinley
Ida Saxton McKinley
Lived: 1847-1907 Mrs. William McKinley.

There was little resemblance between the vivacious young woman who married
William McKinley in January 1871--a slender bride with sky-blue eyes and
fair skin and masses of auburn hair--and the petulant invalid who moved into
the White House with him in March 1897. Now her face was pallid and drawn,
her close-cropped hair gray; her eyes were glazed with pain or dulled with
sedative. Only one thing had remained the same: love which had brightened
early years of happiness and endured through more than twenty years of
illness.

Ida had been born in Canton, Ohio, in 1847, elder daughter of a socially
prominent and well-to-do family. James A. Saxton, a banker, was indulgent to
his two daughters. He educated them well in local schools and a finishing
school, and then sent them to Europe on the grand tour.

Being pretty, fashionable, and a leader of the younger set in Canton did not
satisfy Ida, so her broad-minded father suggested that she work in his bank.
As a cashier she caught the attention of Maj. William McKinley, who had come
to Canton in 1867 to establish a law practice, and they fell deeply in love.
While he advanced in his profession, his young wife devoted her time to home
and husband. A daughter, Katherine, was born on Christmas Day, 1871; a
second, in April 1873. This time Ida was seriously ill, and the frail baby
died in August. Phlebitis and epileptic seizures shattered the mother's
health; and even before little Katie died in 1876, she was a confirmed
invalid.


As Congressman and then as governor of Ohio, William McKinley was never far
from her side. He arranged their life to suit her convenience. She spent
most of her waking hours in a small Victorian rocking chair that she had had
since childhood; she sat doing fancy work and crocheting bedroom slippers
while she waited for her husband, who indulged her every whim.

At the White House, the McKinleys acted as if her health were no great
handicap to her role as First Lady. Richly and prettily dressed, she
received guests at formal receptions seated in a blue velvet chair. She held
a fragrant bouquet to suggest that she would not shake hands. Contrary to
protocol, she was seated beside the President at state dinners and he, as
always, kept close watch for signs of an impending seizure. If necessary, he
would cover her face with a large handkerchief for a moment. The First Lady
and her devoted husband seemed oblivious to any social inadequacy. Guests
were discreet and newspapers silent on the subject of her "fainting spells."
Only in recent years have the facts of her health been revealed.

When the President was shot by an assassin in September 1901, after his
second inauguration, he thought primarily of her. He murmured to his
secretary: "My wife--be careful, Cortel you, how you tell her--oh, be
careful." After his death, she lived in Canton, cared for by her younger
sister, visiting her husband's grave almost daily. She died in 1907, and
lies entombed beside the President and near their two little daughters in
Canton's McKinley Memorial Mausoleum.

copied from
http://boards.rootsweb.com/topics.obits2/28803/mb.ashx


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• [W-OBITS] MCKINLEY: Ida Saxton McKinley 1907 by "Peter McCrae" <>