Joan Gross, age 17, of Utica, N.Y., for her question:
WHO WAS THE NATION'S YOUNGEST FIRST LADY?
The youngest First Lady in the nation's history was Frances Folsom Cleveland. She was just 21 years old when she married Grover Cleveland in the Blue Room of the White House. The President was 49 years old.
Cleveland moved into the White House to start his first term as President of the United States in 1885. His younger sister Rose acted as his hostess because he did not have a wife.
Then in June, 1886, Cleveland delighted the nation with his marriage to Frances Folsom. Her nickname was Frank. She performed the official duties of White House hostess with great ease and charm.
The young bride had been Cleveland's ward since her father died in 1875 when she was only 10 years old. Her father had been one of Cleveland's law partners.
Cleveland was the only President to be married in the White House.
Cleveland ran for re election in 1888 and even though he had more popular votes than his opponent Benjamin Harrison, Harrison received the larger electoral vote and won the election.
As the Clevelands left the White House in 1889, it is said that Mrs. Cleveland told the servants: "I want you to take good care of all the furniture and ornaments in the house, for I want to find everything just as it is now when we come back again four years from today."
Four years later, in the election of 1892, Grover Cleveland became the first and only President who served two terms that did not directly follow each other.
The President and his First Lady had five children: Ruth, Esther, Marion, Richard and Francis. Esther Cleveland, who was born in 1893, was the first and only child of a President to be born in the White House.
Mr. and Mrs. Cleveland lived in Princeton, N.J., after they left the White House for the second time. Cleveland served Princeton University as a lecturer and as a trustee.
Cleveland died in 1908 at the age of 71. Five years after his death, Mrs. Cleveland married Thomas Preston Jr., a Princeton professor.
Born in Caldwell, N.J., Cleveland decided when he was 17 years old to look for better opportunities. He planned to move to Cleveland, Ohio, which attracted him because of its name. But he stopped in Buffalo, N.Y., to visit his mother's uncle who persuaded him to stay.
Cleveland decided to become a lawyer and he was admitted to the bar just as the Civil War started. Two of his brothers served in the Union Army during the war, but Cleveland's help was needed to support his mother and other children. He paid a substitute to take his place in the army. Although this was legal and a common practice, the fact that he did not serve in the war was later used against him by his political enemies.
Cleveland became mayor of Buffalo in 1881 and then easily won the election of 1882 that made him governor of New York. Two years later, in 1884, he was elected President of the United States.