How young can US First Lady be?

There's no legal age minimum for the First Lady as it isn't an official position within the Government.

Theoretically we could have a divorced unmarried President enter the White House and designate his teenage daughter as 'First Lady' in that she does the same job as the wives of Presidents, in charge of formal hosting, doing charity work, taking up a cause, etc, and she would count as a 'legit' First Lady by the definition of the ceremonial, unofficial role.
 

B-29_Bomber

Banned
Theoretically we could have a divorced unmarried President enter the White House and designate his teenage daughter as 'First Lady' in that she does the same job as the wives of Presidents, in charge of formal hosting, doing charity work, taking up a cause, etc, and she would count as a 'legit' First Lady by the definition of the ceremonial, unofficial role.

Indeed.
 
Theoretically we could have a divorced unmarried President enter the White House and designate his teenage daughter as 'First Lady' in that she does the same job as the wives of Presidents, in charge of formal hosting, doing charity work, taking up a cause, etc, and she would count as a 'legit' First Lady by the definition of the ceremonial, unofficial role.
As stated above, two teenage First Daughters DID serve as unofficial First Ladies when her mother was alive but ill. Helen Taft Jr. starting age 17 (and she dropped out of school to do so!) and Mary Fillmore starting age 18. In contrast, the 10 year old Ellen Arthur was passed over, and her married aunt called to Washington to fill in for both First Lady and Ellen´s mother.

There actually was a wife of President who never was to Washington. Anna Harrison. Aged 65. Due to illness, did not show up at inauguration. Planned to travel to Washington in May. Instead, a 37 year old widowed daughter-in-law served as First Lady... and William Harrison died before Anna got packed to set out on voyage.

Two more wives of President who largely did not work as First Ladies:
Jane Pierce. Chronic depression. Stayed in her living rooms in White House for first two years of her terms. Delegated the functions of First Lady to an unrelated good friend... who happened to be wife of Secretary of War.
Yes. Varina was the First Lady of both Union (unofficially) and Confederacy (officially).
And Eliza Johnson was chronically ill with tuberculosis in White House. So her married daughter Martha Patterson, 37 at inauguration, served as First Lady.

To return to the issue of age qualifications:
17 is old enough, because Helen Taft Jr. served at that age, and was only not quite official because Sr. survived.
10 is possibly too young, because Ellen Arthur was passed over. Though her personal dislike of publicity may have contributed. Certainly Ellen Grant, ages 13 to 16, held a high public profile (with her mother around) that Ellen Arthur did not get by age of 14.

Would the Ellen Grant whom father declined to rebuke when public critizised her for dancing all night before age of 16 have been appointed First Lady if Julia was unavailable?

20th and 21st century USA quite officially has Office of First Lady.

How would Office of First Lady have been supposed to operate if, on 20th of January, 1993, they were facing inauguration of a 12 year old First Lady - Chelsea would only become a teenager on 27th of January, and as per PoD, Hillary would have died late in campaign or before inauguration... leaving the 12 year old Chelsea as the woman of the house, and of White House at that?
 
20th and 21st century USA quite officially has Office of First Lady.

How would Office of First Lady have been supposed to operate if, on 20th of January, 1993, they were facing inauguration of a 12 year old First Lady - Chelsea would only become a teenager on 27th of January, and as per PoD, Hillary would have died late in campaign or before inauguration... leaving the 12 year old Chelsea as the woman of the house, and of White House at that?

I think in this case that Bill would ask his mother to take up the role, if she hadn't been dying of breast cancer at that point in time.

The Clintons were very protective of Chelsea and her right to grow up as a regular kid so I think in this case Bill Clinton would have the role of 'First Lady' rotate a bit between female relatives that he trusted until finding someone that was the 'right fit'. At least until he (eventually) remarried, though that would be awhile.


On an unrelated note this is an interesting POD for the modern Alt history thread, Hillary having died on the campaign trail and Bill Clinton entering the White House as a widower. A big chunk of Anti-Clintonism focused on Hillary Clinton and the fact that she wasn't content to play hostess, smile, and stay in the background as First Lady. I could see Bill burying himself in work for the first year or so before jumping into the dating pool again (officially at any rate), I could see several 'Clinton Scandals' involving his latest 'Squeeze of the Week'.
 
Jacob Zuma in South Africa has six wives, I think, and they ALL get state support and funding for their expenses, and being the wives of a profligate spender like Zuma, they put quite the dent for being just the spouses of the President. There was some controversy when he decided to take a new one.

Ah...Jacob! We only pay tax for four of those six wives - one's deceased and another's divorced (although Zuma's trying to get her to succeed him as president to prevent him from being raked over the coals once he gets exaugurated and having to, in the words of Julius Malema (and several South African comedians) 'pay back the money!'), so they don't count. I'm not sure if we pay for the upkeep of his kids. But yeah, in the words of another South African comedian "I have no problem paying for i-first lady, i-second lady; but eish! if I must pay for i-first girlfriend! Aikona!"

PS: Please don't ban me.
 
Top