Melania meets Louisa

At this very moment the whole world is threatened by  Coronavirus.   To  protect ourselves we are cocooned in our homes,  the shops  and cafes and theatres are closed, and the streets are empty. Will this disaster ever come to an end?   We need help.  We need someone to stand back and take  the  long view : to look ahead and foretell that this menace will one day surely be behind us  and life will return to normal.  Step up First Lady  Melania Trump to calm the situation with  wise words:

 

 

Melania lives a remarkable life, from modest beginnings in native Slovenia to First Lady of the great USA.  She is the first  foreign-born First Lady whose native language is not English. But the truly first foreign-born First Lady was in fact  Louisa Catherine Adams, wife of John Quincy Adams, who served as the sixth president of the United States from 1825 to 1829.

Louisa Johnson was born in London on February 12, 1775, to an American father – Joshua Johnson, a Maryland merchant and US Consul  living in London – and an English mother, Catherine Newth.  In 1794, a young John Quincy Adams  [1767 – 1848]  met Louisa in London, where she lived with her father in Coopers Row [it’s still there – see map  below] , near the Tower of London.  At that time  Adams was a US diplomat. After three years, they married in nearby Church of All Hallows-by-the-Tower.  

Note: This is the only marriage of a U.S. President that has occurred on foreign soil. This historic Church is also the place of  baptism of William Penn, Quaker and  founder of Pennsylvania.     There’s more about ‘All Hallows’ and its American connection on another page of  this blog – see  here.

Louisa was a sophisticated English lady,  fluent also in French as the family lived many year in France. She was sociable and talented with a good singing voice and skilled on the harp.  She supported her husband’s career and encouraging him to run for President.  She died in 1852 at the age of 77 and lies alongside her husband in the United States Parish Church, Quincy, Massachusetts.   All well told here – thanks.

 

First foreign-born First Lady of USA, Louisa Catherine Adams [1775 – 1852]

Louisa Catherine Adams. Talented Harpist

 

So we send our thanks to Melania both for her wise words and for introducing us to her forbear, Louisa. And indeed, may Melania be right that Coronavirus will one day  [soon?] be behind us.

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