What's love got to do with it? A Presidents Day celebration at the
Chicago Historical Society will try to answer that question by exploring the
private lives of John and Jacqueline Kennedy, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln,
and their legacies.
Abe look-alike Michael Krebs, as Lincoln, will be accompanied by Debra
Miller coiffed and dressed to resemble his spouse. The Lincolns couldn't
have been more different.
"He lived in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, bounced around from
state to state with his father and had less than a year of formal education
and she grew up in an affluent home with servants and was able to go to school
for eight years, which was unheard of for women in that day," explains Miller.
During the hour-long presentation that explores their relationship, the
two actors reveal that Abe and Mary did, however, have one sad experience
in common.
"He lost his mother when he was 9 and she lost her mother when she was
6," explains Miller, "so they shared the same feeling of abandonment and
fear of abandonment."
The title "First Lady" originated with Mary, who took on the task of renovating
the White House.
"She saw the executive mansion as a place for dignitaries to meet and thought
it should be well appointed, but she overspent the budget by $1,500," explains
Krebs. "Abe said, `I won't have soldiers sleeping in the fields with no blankets
to furnish flub-dubs for this old house' and he made up the difference himself."
William and Sue Wills are easily recognizable as Jack and Jackie Kennedy.
"I have a few of Jack's little mannerisms like the way he leaned slightly
forward because of his back problem and the little smile he had just before
giving a nice one-liner at a press conference," says William Wills, "and Sue
wears the trademark pillbox hat and a suit like Jackie wore and she has her
wispy voice."
The presentations are separate, but the lives of the Lincolns and the Kennedys
intersected in a variety of ways.
"JFK tried to model his speeches after Lincoln's and Jackie was the first
to redo the White House 100 years after Mary redid it," says Miller. "Both
couples lost children and Mary and Jackie lost their husbands and were adrift
afterwards because the country couldn't deal with the grief and so they both
went to Europe to escape the pain and scrutiny."
The relationship between Abe and Mary and between JFK and Jackie may have
had a common element, too.
"The Lincolns loved each other fiercely," says Miller, while Krebs points
out, "I think Jack and Jackie's relationship was getting stronger in 1960
because they were brought together by so many personal tragedies and it seemed
like Jack was maturing and mellowing." Miller concludes, "These were vulnerable,
fallible people, not icons on a shelf."
