It is a pleasure for my husband and me to be here. We first met in Boston at Jordan Marsh Company 35 years ago, and our daughter was born in Boston. We have not been back here for 20 years. This trip has brought back many good memories.

By the time I was born, my grandparents had been out of the White House for 10 years and my grandfather had died 6 years before my birth, so I never did see how my grandparents interacted or what influence my grandmother had on my grandfather. Politically, I am told she had no influence on him and rarely, if ever, did they discuss politics. She had complete faith in her husband's judgment. Her role was to support what he did, to raise their two sons, and to maintain a comfortable home for all three. Of course, her role became more public as First Lady.

Much has already been written about Grace Coolidge, including two very good books: Grace Coolidge and Her Era by Ishbel Ross and Grace Coolidge: An Autobiography edited by Lawrence Wikander and Robert Ferrell. Public accounts depict her as vivacious, out-going, and fun-loving, which she was. My aim here today is to tell you about Grace Coolidge as a mother and grandmother and for that, I am relying on personal recollections and letters which she faithfully wrote each Sunday for many years to "her precious four''- her name for my father and mother, my sister and me.

During World War II, gasoline for private use was rationed, so instead of driving to Plymouth, Vermont for vacations, my family went to Maine by train where my mother's parents had a camp. When the war ended in 1945, we returned to Plymouth for vacations and holidays, often accompanied by Grandmother Coolidge. She continued to go with us until 1951. We stayed in the Coolidge Homestead where my grandfather had taken the Oath of Office. Aurora Pierce was the housekeeper at the Homestead. She had been hired by my great-grandfather and had her own way of doing things. My grandmother was sometimes called upon to "referee" disagreements between Aurora and my mother about how something should be done.

Grandmother was my best customer when, for about three years, I set up "the Coolidge Post Office" in a corner of the living room. I used a carton with dividers for the mail boxes and assigned each family member a box. I would collect the mail from the Plymouth Post Office and divide it into the proper boxes, then announce to the family that the mail had arrived. I also sold stamps and mailed out-going letters. Grandmother used all my services.

Grandmother loved to walk and did so daily in Vermont. At times she walked 6-8 miles at a good clip and it was difficult to keep up with her.

Because my grandmother and mother both wanted relief from cooking while on vacation, we would drive to an inn for dinner each evening. One summer, I fell and sustained a concussion. My head was bandaged and I was unable to go with my family to dinner. Grandmother would decorate my bandage with a flower or pin on a bird's feather which she would find for me.

Other Vermont memories include grocery shopping trips when she loved to buy S.S. Pierce products. She liked to attend auctions and occasionally, we would return home with "a real find"!

When my sister and I stayed with her in Northampton, it was at Road Forks, which was to me a fascinating house with many cupboards and closets to explore. In her house, her hobbies were evident: lush African violets which she lovingly tended, bird feeders with a variety of birds flocking to her delight, and a collection of keepsakes in the shape of human hands. She thought hands were the most expressive part of the body. Usually, when we arrived, she would be listening to a Boston Red Sox ball game on the radio (later she had a TV, but she preferred the radio because she could use her imagination to picture the game more vividly than seeing it on TV). Sometimes, she would be knitting or doing needlepoint for six dining room chair seats which we are still using today. My sister and I often stayed with Grandmother while my parents were on a business trip. My mother would always tell my grandmother not to take us clothes shopping and not to spoil us, but she would do both as we were her only grandchildren, and it gave her pleasure to do so. Of course, it gave us pleasure, too!

Because Northampton is a college town, there were wonderful shops and restaurants. We usually had lunch at Beckman's and I always ordered a BLT sandwich followed by a "Dusty Miller," chocolate or coffee ice cream topped with marshmallow sauce and malted milk.

It was amazing to be with her in Northampton when she met people on the street or in the stores. She not only remembered their names, but also the names of their spouses and children. She was always interested in other people and considered people her "books". Very rarely did she offer her own opinion about something, but she was always interested in the opinions of other people when the subject interested her.

Community activities kept her busy in Northampton. She was on the Board of Trustees, then Chairman of the Board at Clarke School for the Deaf from 1933-1952. She had taught at Clarke School before marrying my grandfather. She attended many functions at Smith College, Amherst College, and Edwards Congregational Church. During World War II, she moved out of her house and let the WAVES use it until the war ended. She would frequently go at 7:00 am to the Northampton train station with gifts and food for the young men leaving to go to war.

She would join us in Connecticut for Christmas and special occasions. My mother's parents would be with us too, and Grandmother Coolidge enjoyed being in their company.

For several years, in early spring, she would spend a couple of months in Tryon, North Carolina at the home owned by her close friend and neighbor, Florence Adams. They would read books, play card games, take long walks, and enjoy picnics.

She had a close circle of friends whose company she enjoyed and they protected her privacy. She corresponded with them as faithfully as she wrote to us. She participated in Round Robin letters which were sent around to her Pi Beta Phi sorority sisters. She wrote poetry. Her most famous poem was "The Open Door," written in memory of her son, Calvin Jr. Another poem, titled "The Quest" is delightful:

Crossing the uplands of time
Skirting the borders of night
Scaling the face of the peak of dreams,
We enter regions of light
And hastening on, with eager intent
Arrive at the rainbows end,
And there, uncover the pot of gold
Buried deep in the heart of a friend.

Her love for her son John (my father) is apparent in the letter she wrote to him just before he married my mother:

John. you are a son for a mother to be proud of and I want you to always feel that I am standing by, ready to do anything for you and Florence. You two together should make something beautiful of your lives. Just don't let little things be-cloud your vision and, when the rough places need to be gotten over, hold your chin up, throw your shoulders back and go forward--for it's the rough places which steady the feet and strengthen the muscles. Life is so beautiful--never do anything which will mar the sweetness of it. My, how I love you and how I want you to find in life all that is just and true and right and live it gloriously!

And her love for her family is apparent in this letter which she wrote to my father just after her first grandchild (my sister) was born:

I am so glad that all is safely over. I wish I might have been present when you first saw the baby. Isn't it wonderful? Wee, little mite of humanity, so tiny and so precious. There is an old bit of verse which begins-.

"Where did you come from, Baby dear? Out of the everywhere into here..." Today I am taken back to those days which seem not so long ago, when you came from that same everywhere and I seem to be quickened in spirit because of this blessed experience which has come to you... I can hardly wait to see my grandchild and I want to see Florence, too... With dearest love to you and Florence and the wee child, Mother.

Her last public appearance was in September 1956 at the dedication service for the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Room at Forbes Library in Northampton.

In June of 1957, I attended a youth conference in Northfield, Massachusetts and when the conference was over, I went to Northampton to visit with Grandmother. By that time, she was bed-ridden and seemed so small and frail, but her spirit still shone through.

The next month my parents, my sister and I went to Plymouth for the Fourth of July. On our way home, we stopped in Northampton. A nurse informed us that the end was near. We drove on to Connecticut, and Dad immediately turned around and headed back to Northampton, but she passed away before he arrived. The date was July 8, 1957. That was 41 years ago, and I still miss her today.

In closing, I'd like to say she was an amazing person. She was the first graduate of a public university and the first professionally trained woman to be First Lady. Nevertheless, in her own words, she describes herself as "a simple, home-loving woman. I love best of all to gather my little family under my own roof and to stay there. We are just a plain New England family and we like, above all else, to live and do the things that simple New England families do."

Endnotes

1. Webb. Susan, "Grace Goodhue Coolidge," The Real Calvin Coolidge, #10, The Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation, Plymouth Vermont, 1994, p. 21.

2.Wikander, Lawrence E. and Robert H. Ferrell, eds., Grace Coolidge: An Autobiography, High Plains Publishing Co., Worland, Wyoming, 1992, p. 110. © 1998 Lydia coolidge Sayles