Rose Cleveland
Rose Elizabeth Cleveland (June 13, 1846 – November 22, 1918) was an American author, lecturer, and educator who served as acting First Lady of the United States from March 4, 1885, to June 2, 1886, during the early months of her brother Grover Cleveland's first presidential term, as he entered office unmarried.[1][2] The youngest of nine children born to a Presbyterian minister in New York, she received her education at Houghton Seminary and pursued a career in teaching literature in Pennsylvania and New York before assuming White House duties.[2] During her tenure as White House hostess, Cleveland organized receptions and social events but expressed a preference for scholarly activities over ceremonial roles, reportedly donating her official salary to charity.[2] Following Grover Cleveland's marriage to Frances Folsom, she resumed her professional pursuits, publishing literary works such as George Eliot's Poetry and Other Studies (1885), which achieved commercial success, The Long Run (1886), a novel, and later The Soliloquies of St. Augustine (1910), while also editing the Literary Life magazine and lecturing on topics including medieval studies.[2][3] In her later years, she traveled extensively in Europe and settled in Italy, where she succumbed to the Spanish influenza pandemic.[2]