There have been twenty-one White House weddings, including nine presidential children and one president, Grover Cleveland. Two other presidents were married outside the White House during their time in office, John Tyler and Woodrow Wilson.
Several presidential children were married outside the White House during their father’s presidency and some of these were spectacular social events. After the death of her father, when Fanny Hayes was married in Ohio, the sitting president William McKinley was in attendance, as well as his Cabinet. Anna Roosevelt Dall was married at the family estate in New York. In the last years of her father’s presidency, she became a powerful White House aide. The wedding of Luci Baines Johnson was a national social event, even though it took place at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. And the small, private wedding of Julie Nixon, shortly after her own father had won the presidency, to Dwight David Eisenhower II, himself the grandson and namesake of a president, prompted widespread public interest and curiosity.
Dorothy Bush, daughter and sister to two presidents, was the only presidential child married at Camp David.
All facts and quotes are taken with permission from the newly released New York Times bestseller, All The Presidents’ Children.
A list of 22 weddings of presidential children married during their father’s presidency, 23 counting Jenna. Children married in the White House are underlined:
March 9, 1820 |
Samuel L. Gouverneur |
|
Feb. 25, 1828 |
Mary Catherine Hellen |
|
Andrew Jackson Jr. |
Nov. 24, 1831 |
Sarah Yorke |
Abraham Van Buren |
Nov. 27, 1838 |
Angelica Singleton |
Jan. 31, 1842 |
William Nevison Waller |
|
May 21, 1874 |
Algernon Charles Satoris |
|
Frederick Grant |
Oct. 20, 1874 |
Ida Marie Honore |
Feb. 17, 1906 |
Rep. Nicholas Longworth |
|
Nov. 25, 1913 |
Frances Bowes Sayre |
|
May 7, 1914 |
William Gibbs McAdoo |
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Anna Roosevelt |
Jan. 1935 |
John Boettiger |
Elliot Roosevelt |
July 22, 1933 |
Ruth Googins |
FDR, Jr. |
June 30, 1937 |
Ethel duPont |
John Roosevelt |
June 18, 1938 |
Anne Lindsay Clark |
James Roosevelt |
April 14, 1941 |
Romelle Schneider |
Elliot Roosevelt |
Dec. 3, 1944 |
Faye Emerson |
Luci Baines Johnson |
Aug. 6, 1966 |
Patrick John Nugent |
Dec. 9, 1967 |
Charles Spittal Robb |
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June 12, 1971 |
Edward Ridley Finch Cox |
|
Maureen Reagan |
April 25, 1981 |
Dennis Revell |
Patti Davis |
Aug. 14, 1984 |
Paul Grilley |
Dorothy Walker Bush |
June 26, 1992 |
Robert Koch |
Jenna Bush |
May 10, 2008 |
Henry Hager |
Note: Julie Nixon married David Eisenhower after her father was elected president but before his inauguration. The Dorothy Bush wedding took place at the presidential retreat at Camp David.
Doug Wead is a respected presidential historian and New York Times bestselling author. He has been an advisor to two presidents and served on senior staff at the White House of George Herbert Walker Bush. Recent titles include The Raising of a President: the Mothers and Fathers of Our Nation’s Leaders.
The Weddings
