Edith used her position as Wilson's wife to control access to the president. She read all papers and documents, and decided which would go to the president and which people would see the president. In this way, she decided which issues would be dealt with, and which issues would not. Since she controlled which papers would or would not be signed, and was almost the only advisor seeing the president, she exerted an unusually strong influence on government policy.
During this period, the cabinet was forbidden to meet, although they met unofficially to conduct some business. Later, Wilson fired his Secretary of State when he found out the cabinet had a meeting without his authorization. Vice President Marshall declined to take any initiative to fill in for the president. This meant that the only business done was whatever Edith Wilson allowed.
Critics called her "the first woman president." In her memoirs, My Memoir, Edith Wilson called this her "stewardship" and insisted emphatically that her husband's doctor had urged this course upon her.
After his term as president was over in 1921, Woodrow and Edith Wilson retired to a comfortable home in Washington, where he died three years later. Edith Wilson continued to live in Washington, a respected figure in capital society. She rode in the inaugural parade of John F. Kennedy in 1961. She died later that year, on December 28, her husband's birthday. Edith Wilson held our government together in a time of crisis. She did this with no authority or official standing, and with no public credit or reward. If she was our first woman president, we were fortunate to have her.
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