Health and Medical History of President
Calvin Coolidge
President #30: 1923-1929
Lived 1872-1933
Lived 1872-1933
Health and Medical History of President
Calvin Coolidge
President #30: 1923-1929
Lived 1872-1933
Lived 1872-1933
↓
Lived 1872-1933
2023
1776
Revolutionary War1776-1783
War of 18121812-1815
Mexican-American War1846-1848
Civil War1861-1865
Spanish-American War1898-1899
World War 11917-1918
World War 21941-1945
Korean War1950-1953
Viet Nam War1964-1975
Desert Storm1990-1991
Bush's Wars2001-2021
Lived 1872-1933
2023
1776
Revolutionary War1776-1783War of 18121812-1815Mexican-American War1846-1848Civil War1861-1865Spanish-American War1898-1899World War 11917-1918World War 21941-1945Korean War1950-1953Viet Nam War1964-1975Desert Storm1990-1991Bush's Wars2001-2021
 |
UNDER CONSTRUCTION |
Maladies & Conditions
· much sleep · depression · appetite
Odds & Ends ·
Doctors ·
Resources ·
Cited Sources
Maladies and Conditions
Coolidge's 16 year old son Calvin died of sepsis (a bacterial infection) on July 7th, 1924.
He had developed a blister on his toe after a game of tennis. A few days later, he was dead.
The Democratic national convention, in session at the time, adjourned for the evening after
the announcement was made
3a.
(Coolidge was a Republican.)
The White House staff expressed different views on Coolidge's reaction.
The seamstress observed: "It was the President who showed his grief quite violently,
and it was Mrs. Coolidge who restrained her sorrow, except when she was alone"
4a.
But from the vantage of the mailroom:
The President suffered a period of utmost despondency without ever permitting anyone on the outside even to attempt to help him. He went about his routine almost as usual, giving no outward sign of what I knew to be a great emotional struggle. He never mentioned the illness or the loss of his son, and never gave me or anyone else a chance to express even a word of sympathy. It made me think he might have been far better off if he could have let some emotion show through, at least for a moment. 5aSome believe that Coolidge's whole presidency changed after the death of his son. On the personal side, they lived quietly: "Mrs. Coolidge would knit, and the President would sit reading, or playing with the many pets around him" 4b.
The amount of Coolidge's eating, without apparent weight gain, puzzled the
White House staff.
He kept nuts around in every room, and nibbled all day long. He kept preserves and crackers in his bedroom, and every morning after his walk, he fixed himself a cheese sandwich. Then he had breakfast." 4cNo wonder he died of a heart attack at a young age (60).
Odds and Ends
- The White House staff sarcastically referred to Coolidge as "Smiley" -- because he wasn't. However, in private he had an excellent sense of humor. 4d
- Coolidge shook hands rapidly in bulk. To the embarrassment of his wife, he "would swing people past him at a tremendous rate at a reception, making them feel unwanted, and brag to her later about how many hands he had shaken in an hour" 4e.
- Coolidge had a fear of snakes, to the point that, on fishing trips, he had the Secret service comb every foot of the pathway he'd walk 4f.
- Ike Hoover
1b
tells a great story of Coolidge receiving a gift of chickens. Asked what to do
with the chickens, Coolidge indicated a place in the White House grounds
where they should be fenced in. When it came time to eat
the chickens, there was a flavor of mint all through the meat. The fenced-in
area had included mint plants, the chickens had eaten the mint, and the flavor
had suffused their meat. Hoover did not know if Coolidge had known of the mint
trick when he specified where to place the chickens, and it seems that Hoover was
a little tortured by the question. :-)
Parks, however, provides the answer, saying that, when the chickens were served, "there was something strange about the taste of the meat -- a minty flavor." The President ordered an investigation, and it was then realized that it was an old mint bed of Theodore Roosevelt's' where the chickens were placed. The coop was then moved. 4g - Coolidge dropped the use of his first name (John) in his 20s. 6a
Doctors
During Presidency
Resources
Cited Sources
- Hoover, Irwin Hood (Ike). 42 Years in the White House. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1934.
a p.268 b p.129Comment: The Library of Congress contains more of Hoover's first-hand recollections of eight presidents.
- Boller, Paul F. Jr. Presidential Anecdotes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
a p.243
- Sobel, Robert. Coolidge: An American Enigma. Washington: Regnery, 1998.
a pp.295-299
- Parks, Lillian Rogers. My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House. New York: Fleet Publishing, 1961.
a p.187 b p.189 c p.186 d pp.175-176, 178 e p.184 f p.180 g p.181Comment: This book stayed on the New York Times best-seller list for 26 weeks, prompting Jacqueline Kennedy to require all staff at the White House to sign a pledge agreeing not to write about their experiences (NY Times, page B8, Nov. 12, 1997). Parks's mother, a maid at the White House from 1909-1939, had actually been encouraged by Eleanor Roosevelt to write and publish a memoir (p260).
- Smith, Ira R. T.; Morris, Joe Alex. "Dear Mr. President:" The Story of Fifty Years in the White House Mail Room. New York: Julian Messner, 1949.
a p.118Comment: Ira Smith was a peppery fellow who ran the White House mail room from 1897 to 1948. He started working during the administration of William McKinley and was the only mail room staffer until the volume of mail made it necessary to hire help during the administration of Franklin Roosevelt.
- Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (ed). Burke's Presidential Families of the United States of America. 2nd ed. London: Burke's Peerage Limited, 1981.
a p.461Comment: Maps -- in great detail -- the ancestors and descendants of American presidents through Ronald Reagan. They would have had an exhausting time with President Obama's family tree! MORE
Other Sources
George Washington · John Adams · Thomas Jefferson · James Madison · James Monroe · John Q. Adams · Andrew Jackson · Martin van Buren · William Harrison · John Tyler · James Polk · Zachary Taylor · Millard Fillmore · Franklin Pierce · James Buchanan · Abraham Lincoln · Andrew Johnson · Ulysses Grant · Rutherford Hayes · James Garfield · Chester Arthur · Grover Cleveland · Benjamin Harrison · Grover Cleveland · William McKinley · Theodore Roosevelt · William Taft · Woodrow Wilson · Warren Harding · Calvin Coolidge · Herbert Hoover · Franklin Roosevelt · Harry Truman · Dwight Eisenhower · John Kennedy · Lyndon Johnson · Richard Nixon · Gerald Ford · James Carter · Ronald Reagan · George Bush · William Clinton · George W. Bush · Barack Obama · Donald Trump · Joseph Biden