Esther Cleveland

Esther Cleveland

Esther Cleveland (September 9, 1893 – June 25, 1980) was the second child of Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States, and his wife Frances Folsom Cleveland.

Quotes

• It's queer what things stick in a child's mind. I can still remember where we used to have our supper, and the general plan of that part of the White House where we were allowed to play. I can also remember our last day there, when we were waiting for the carriage to convey us to the railway station. I remember the satisfaction with which I wore my little gloves in preparation for the journey. There is one thing I do not remember, but which members of the family have told me. I was sitting there very primly, waiting to leave the White House, when one of the attaches said, teasingly: "Why are you leaving us?" I am supposed to have replied: "'Cause there can't be two presidents!"
  • Esther Cleveland Bosanquets, Alton Evening Telegraph (25 May 1934)

• One of my nicest memories is of father having me downstairs in his study before I went to bed. He would put me on his knee and encourage me to put my fingers in the ink pots on his desk and draw pictures on his huge blotters. He loved it, and of course I loved it too.
  • From an interview with the AP on her memories of living in the White House (The Register-Guard, 6 Jul 1962)

• I am all for President Kennedy and his wife - they are Democrats like my father. I will be glad if it is one of their children who follows me in being born in the White House. ... My husband and I were at breakfast when we heard the announcement [of the First Lady's pregnancy] on a radio news program. We laughed when the announcer said the only [president's] child to be born in the White House was born there nearly 70 years ago. It rather brought home my age to me.
  • To the AP, on the chances of First Lady Jaqueline Kennedy giving birth to her third child in the Executive Mansion (The Oregonian, 18 Apr 1963)

• I think by now I have pretty well absorbed the British "way of life," but that does not mean that I forget for one moment that I am thoroughly American. Perhaps it is because I am so much of an American that I have been able to adapt myself so easily to English ways.
  • On living in the United Kingdom since marrying her English husband in 1918 (The Observer, 4 Aug 1963)