I’ve had a blast promoting my new book, Poems by First Ladies, at recent festivals in Missouri and New York. As much as I tend to prefer words, I’ll let the “a picture’s worth 1,000 words” approach do most of the talking. Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival In April, I traveled to Marshfield, Missouri, for the Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival. This annual event gives First Ladies their due and is well attended by descendants of presidents and First Ladies. I was…
Monthly Archives:
July 2026
Louisa Adams’s Poem About the Deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson on America’s Semicentennial
Posted on July 4, 2026Two hundred years ago, on America’s fiftieth birthday on the Fourth of July in 1826, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died. These political rivals were the country’s second and third presidents—and first two vice presidents. Louisa Adams, the former’s daughter-in-law, was the First Lady at the time; her husband, John Quincy Adams, was the president. Louisa composed a poem in memory of the two former presidents: The rival chiefs—who all their life Were striving to be even In death…