A portrait of a beloved First Lady and an account of a complex marriage examines the life of Mamie Eisenhower and her relationship with Ike Eisenhower
There was more to her than just those bangs! So insists Mamie Eisenhower's granddaughter, who has authored an enlightening biography. Based on unpublished family letters and documents, Susan's judicious treatment of her grandmother follows Mamie Doud from the proper, functional, socially conscious family environment into which she was born, to her early married years to Ike Eisenhower (who was raised in far different circumstances), to the war years as home-front wife of the Allied commander, and to her years in the White House, where she functioned as the perfect 1950s First Lady. Mamie comes out from under Ike's shadow here, and the author reveals a woman who stood by her man but did it in her own fashion. The reader will come away from the book with an understanding of Mamie as a woman who was definitely of her time but who, nonetheless, was "centered, confident, and unapologetic about who she was." Sure to be in demand, particularly among readers who look at the 1950s as more than just a boring interlude between World War II and the 1960s. - Brad Hooper