My young friend Sarah called and asked if I wouldn't like to go visit the Dwight D. Eisenhower museum with her. It is located a little over an hour away in the town of Abilene, Kansas. The drive there was peaceful; through rolling prairie country. And what fun to talk all the way there!!
When we arrived there, we met a man in the lobby who was from Wisconsin, from the town my son-in-law grew up in! He did not know Adam or his parents but he did know the church they attend, as his friend also goes there. He said his hobby was visiting presidential libraries and museums across the U.S. This was his third one that weekend. His goal is to visit all of them!
I recommended the following book written by Robert Morgan since he enjoys history. I learned all kinds of new things about history in America that I had never known before!
Before going to the museum, we watched a movie at the visitor's center that highlighted Dwight Eisenhower's life.
They were updating the home that President Eisenhower grew up in so we were not able to go inside it. That's ok. That just means going back another time!
Eisenhower was the president of the United States from 1953 - 1961, which means he was the president when I was born until my first grade year.
I knew I would learn things about Eisenhower on this trip, but I didn't
realize how impacted I would be by his wife, Mamie Eisenhower.
Mary Geneva "Mamie" Doud was born into a well to do family in Boone, Iowa. When she was seven, her father had accumulated enough wealth as a businessman to retire. They moved to a large home in Denver, Colorado, where she learned etiquette of the upper class.
The electric car below belonged to her father. They made long visits to relatives in San Antonio, Texas during winters.
It was in San Antonio that she met Dwight Eisenhower, who was a young army lieutenant, six years older than her. Even though he was of lower class, he was an accomplished and well-respected army man and the parents approved the match. They were married in 1916. Mamie was only 19.
They lived in military housing in San Antonio where she had to learn to budget and how to take care of a house. No more maids as in her pampered growing up youth! Military life took them all over the world. She learned to do with little money. Mamie estimated that she had unpacked at least 27 times by the time they went to the White House.
Their first son, Doud, died of scarlet fever at age three.
The military often separated them, but Mamie wrote to Dwight D. almost every day.
"A wife plays a very big part...I bought into the partnership idea strongly." - Mamie
Another verse that comes to mind is Proverbs 31:11-12:
"The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life."
Such wisdom.
Here was a charm bracelet that pictured her grandchildren.
Their bedroom in the White House.
She loved pink and there was a shade of pink called "Mamie pink" after her.
He is credited with the interstate system! I can still remember when I was 7 and we came to America and seeing this pristine 4-lane highway and being awed by it.
I look at our country these days and believe Eisenhower would just cry over the state it is in.
We went out to eat at a bistro afterwards.
It is clear that Abilene is proud of their "son" who became the 34th president of the United States.
I'm really looking forward to having Sarah join me in leading other moms as we study 1st and 2nd Peter this year at our church!
May we as women be like Mamie and stand behind our husbands to encourage them, to respect them, and be to them a "helpmeet". Genesis 2:18 says "The Lord God said 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.'"
That word "helper" is from the word "ezer" and it is a STRONG word. It is also "a military term of reinforcement without which the battle would be lost". So we come under, come alongside, defend and support our husbands. Like Mamie did. Thank you, Mamie, for your example!
