FIRST LADY RANKINGS

 

Watson 2003 Poll

 

1 Eleanor Roosevelt

2 Dolley Madison

3 Lady Bird Johnson

4 Abigail Adams

5 Martha Washington

6 Hillary Clinton

7 Rosalynn Carter

8 Jacqueline Kennedy

9 Betty Ford

10 Edith Roosevelt

11 Sarah Polk

12 Lucy Hayes

13 Edith Wilson

14 Lou Hoover

15 Frances Cleveland

16 Caroline Harrison

17 Barbara Bush

18 Julia Grant

19 Ellen Wilson

20 Laura Bush

21 Nancy Reagan

22 Helen Taft

23 Grace Coolidge

24 Pat Nixon

25 Abigail Fillmore

26 Louisa Adams

27 Bess Truman

28 Julia Tyler

29 Florence Harding

30 Mamie Eisenhower

31 Elizabeth Monroe

32 Eliza Johnson

33 Mary Lincoln

34 Ida McKinley

35 Letitia Tyler

36 Margaret Taylor

37 Jane Pierce

 

Not ranked: Anna Harrison, Lucretia Garfield (Martha Jefferson, Rachel Jackson, Hannah Van Buren, Ellen Arthur, and Alice Roosevelt died prior to their husband's presidency)

 

Watson 1997 Poll

 

1 Eleanor Roosevelt

2 Abigail Adams

3 Dolley Madison

4 Martha Washington

5 Betty Ford

6 Sarah Polk

7 Julia Grant

8 Harriet Lane *

9 Francis Cleveland

10 Ellen Wilson

11 Jacqueline Kennedy

12 Lucretia Garfield

13 Abigail Fillmore

14 Elizabeth Johnson

15 Edith Roosevelt

16 Hillary Rodham Clinton

17 Lady Bird Johnson

18 Bess Truman

19 Barbara Bush

20 Rosalynn Carter

21 Louisa Adams

22 Lucy Hayes

23 Pat Nixon

24 Elizabeth Monroe

25 Catherine Harrison

26 Grace Coolidge

27 Lou Hoover

28 Julia Tyler

29 Edith Wilson

30 Letitia Tyler

31 Margaret Taylor

32 Ida McKinley

33 Mamie Eisenhower

34 Nancy Reagan

35 Helen Taft

36 Florence Harding

37 Jane Pierce

38 Mary Todd Lincoln

39 Anna Harrison

 

* Harriet Lane was the niece of and hostess for bachelor president James Buchanan