Edith Bolling was born October 15, 1872, in The Bolling Building located at 145 East Main Street, Wytheville, Virginia. The second story of this building was the family home of Judge William Holcombe Bolling and Sallie Spiers White Bolling during the years 1866-1899. Edith was the seventh of eleven Bolling children.

The Bollings were an old Virginia family who lost their land and home located in Bedford County after the Civil War.  In 1860, William Bolling’s father, Dr. Archibald Bolling, Jr., purchased at public auction the Wytheville home where Edith would later be born. The Bolling Home is unique in that the back of the house faced a beautiful view of the mountains from the second story porch. The Bolling Home was a large one and the first-floor main street storefronts supplemented the Bolling family’s income.

Edith’s parents, her ten siblings, grandmothers, an occasional boarder, several dogs, and twenty-six canary birds lived in the home. The grandmothers contributed to the education, social, and religious training of the Bolling children. Today the building, located in the heart of downtown Wytheville, looks much the same as it did during her childhood.

Edith Bolling Wilson was baptized three days after her birth at St. John’s Episcopal Church located one block from The Bolling Home. In 1896, she was married in the same church to Norman Galt, owner of a jewelry store in Washington, D.C. Norman Galt died in 1908. She was partially supporting three brothers, her sister, and mother.  Rather than sell her husband’s jewelry store, she ran the business with the manager Henry Bergheimer and her lawyer.  Together they successfully brought the firm out of debt.

She created quite a stir in Washington when she became the first woman in Washington, D.C. to own  an  electric  car  and  she drove herself to work.  Washington society was even more amazed as she continued to oversee the day-today- operations of the firm until the 1930’s when she sold the business to her employees. 

Edith married President Woodrow Wilson on December 18, 1915, at her home in Washington, D.C. President Wilson was elected to a second term of office on November 7, 1916. Edith Bolling Wilson was the constant companion of Woodrow Wilson. In 1919 when a stroke left President Wilson paralyzed, she managed many government details for the President and has been referred to as “the First Woman President.”

Edith Bolling Wilson was a direct descendent of the famous American Indian, Pocahontas, and her husband, John Rolfe. Also a member of Virginia aristocracy, Edith’s great-great-grandmother was the sister of President Thomas Jefferson.

Edith Bolling Wilson’s humble beginnings in this charming southern town of Wytheville, Virginia, served her well as she left her tranquil small-town life to live in the White House as First Lady. She was a commanding presence as an adult, with her five-feet-nine-inch, elegantly attired figure and was attractive as well as intelligent. After President Woodrow Wilson’s death in 1924, Edith lived out her life promoting her husband’s legacy. Her last visit to Wytheville was in 1960 to dedicate stained glass windows at St. John’s Episcopal Church in memory of her parents. Edith Bolling Wilson died on December 28, 1961, on Woodrow Wilson’s birthday and is interred with him at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

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