Jennie Tuttle Hobart
{{short description|Second Lady of the United States (1849–1941)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date= July 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| image = JTHobart.gif
| office = Second Lady of the United States
| vicepresident = Garret Hobart
| term_start = March 4, 1897
| term_end = November 21, 1899
| term_label = In role
| predecessor = Letitia Stevenson
| successor = Edith Roosevelt
| birth_name = Esther Jane Tuttle
| birth_date = {{birth date|1849|4|30}}
| birth_place = Paterson, New Jersey, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1941|1|8|1849|4|30}}
| death_place = Haledon, New Jersey, U.S.
| resting_place = Cedar Lawn Cemetery
| spouse = {{marriage|Garret Hobart|1869|1899|end=died}}
| children = 4
| parents = Socrates Tuttle
Jane (Winters) Tuttle
| relatives = George S. Hobart (nephew-in-law)
}}
Esther Jane "Jennie" Hobart ({{nee}} Tuttle; April 30, 1849 – January 8, 1941) was the wife of Vice President Garret Hobart. She served as the second lady of the United States from 1897 until her husband's death in 1899, and was a philanthropist and community activist in New Jersey.
Hobart often served as White House hostess because the first lady, Ida Saxton McKinley, suffered from epilepsy and other chronic ailments.
Biography
Born and raised in Paterson, New Jersey, Hobart was the daughter of the prominent attorney Socrates Tuttle and his wife, Jane Winters. Her mother died soon after birth, leaving Hobart to be raised by her step-mother, Elizabeth Willer Tuttle.{{Cite news |last=Special to the Herald Tribune |date=Jan 9, 1941 |title=Mrs. G. A. Hobart 91, Is Dead; Widow of 24th Vice-President: White House Hostess During Mrs. McKinley's Illness; Decorated by King Albert |work=New York Herald Tribune |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1252901155|id={{ProQuest|1252901155}} }} She married Garret Hobart in Paterson on July 21, 1869, at the start of his career as a lawyer and politician. They had four children, two of whom died in childhood. The other two were Garret Jr. and Fannie, who died in 1895.
In 1896, Garret Hobart was elected Vice President of the United States and the family moved to Washington, D.C. As the second lady of the United States, Hobart often served as White House hostess because the first lady, Ida Saxton McKinley, suffered from epilepsy and other chronic ailments. Vice President Hobart died of heart failure on November 21, 1899. After his death, she returned to Paterson and became involved in community affairs. She was a close friend of Mrs. McKinley and rushed to Buffalo, New York, to offer her support when President McKinley was assassinated in September 1901.
During the American women's suffrage movement, Hobart positioned herself as definitively anti-suffrage. She organized the New Jersey Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage and held regular meetings.Burstyn, Joan. "Past and Promise: Lives of New Jersey Women", Page 153.
Hobart died of pneumonia on January 8, 1941, aged 91, in Haledon, New Jersey, where she had been living on her son's farm, and was buried in Cedar Lawn Cemetery in Paterson, New Jersey.Burstyn, Joan N. [https://books.google.com/books?id=h-6WCBQPZdoC&pg=PA153&lpg=PA153 "Past and Promise: Lives of New Jersey Women"], p. 153. Syracuse University Press, 1997. {{ISBN|0-8156-0418-1}}. Accessed May 1, 2011. "She maintained a close relationship with her son and in later years, when her health was failing, lived with his family at Ailsa Farms in Haledon. She died there of bronchial pneumonia, at age 91, on January 8, 1941, and was buried at the Cedar Lawn Cemetery in Paterson."
The McKinley Administration
When the McKinley family moved into the White House after President McKinley's inauguration, the Hobart family leased a mansion across the square that came to be known as the "Little Cream White House," formally the Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House.{{Cite web |title=Second Spouses |url=https://www.whitehousehistory.org/second-spouses |access-date=2023-10-10 |website=WHHA (en-US) |language=en}} Hobart would daily visit, and often stand in for, Ida McKinley with whom she shared a close friendship.{{Cite web |title=McKinley Writes to the Widow of His Vice President and Dear Friend, Mrs. Hobart |url=https://www.shapell.org/manuscript/mckinley-hobart-friendship/ |access-date=2023-10-10 |website=Shapell |language=en-US}} Mrs. McKinley's poor health during the first two years of McKinley's administration led to Hobart taking over many duties typically reserved for the First Lady. President McKinley would use a pre-arranged signal of holding a newspaper before Hobart when Mrs. McKinley was about to faint, alerting her to take over the entertainment of guests.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Find a Grave|9557759}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20061229134215/http://www.scc.rutgers.edu/njwomenshistory/Period_4/hobart.htm New Jersey Women's History]
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{{s-hon}}
{{s-bef|before=Letitia Stevenson}}
{{s-ttl|title=Second Lady of the United States|years=1897–1899}}
{{s-vac|next=Edith Roosevelt}}
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{{US Second Ladies}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hobart, Jennie Tuttle}}
Category:Burials at Cedar Lawn Cemetery
Category:Deaths from pneumonia in New Jersey
Category:People from Haledon, New Jersey
Category:People from Paterson, New Jersey
Category:Second ladies and gentlemen of the United States