Eleanor Wilson McAdoo

"Eleanor Wilson" redirects here. For the actress, see Eleanor D. Wilson. For the English writer (1769–1833), see Eleanor Tatlock.

Eleanor Randolph Wilson McAdoo (October 16, 1889 – April 5, 1967) was an American writer and the youngest daughter of American president Woodrow Wilson and Ellen Louise Axson. Wilson had two sisters, Margaret Woodrow Wilson and Jessie Woodrow Wilson Sayre.

Eleanor Wilson McAdoo
Eleanor Wilson c. 1910
Born	Eleanor Randolph Wilson (1889-10-16)October 16, 1889 Middletown, Connecticut, U.S.
Died	April 5, 1967(1967-04-05) (aged 77) Montecito, California, U.S.
Resting place	Santa Barbara, California
Other names	Nellie Wilson
Education	Saint Mary's School
Spouse	William Gibbs McAdoo ​ ​ (m. 1914; div. 1935)​
Children	2
Parents	Woodrow Wilson Ellen Axson Wilson
Relatives	Jessie Woodrow Wilson Sayre (Sister) Margaret Woodrow Wilson (sister) Francis Bowes Sayre Jr. (nephew) Eleanor Sayre (Niece) Edith Wilson (stepmother)

Biography

She was born on October 16, 1889, to Woodrow Wilson and Ellen Axson Wilson in Middletown, Connecticut. She was educated at Saint Mary's School, an Episcopal boarding school for girls in Raleigh, North Carolina.^[1][2]

She married William Gibbs McAdoo, Wilson's Secretary of the Treasury, at the White House on May 7, 1914.^[3] They had two daughters: Ellen Wilson McAdoo (1915–1946)^[4] and Mary Faith McAdoo (1920–1988).^[5] She divorced McAdoo in July 1935.^[6]

Because she had written a biography about her father, she served as an informal counselor on the 1944 biopic Wilson.^[7] In 1965, she became largely incapacitated following a cerebral hemorrhage.

McAdoo died at her home in Montecito, California, at 77.^[8] She was interred at the Santa Barbara Cemetery, Santa Barbara, California. She was the last surviving child of Woodrow Wilson.

Family

• Woodrow Wilson, father
• Ellen Axson Wilson, mother
• Edith Bolling, stepmother
• William Gibbs McAdoo, former husband
• Margaret Wilson, sister
• Jessie Woodrow Wilson Sayre, sister

Publications

• The Woodrow Wilsons by Eleanor Wilson McAdoo (McMillan, 1937)
• Julia and the White House "An American girl finds herself in the exciting yet sobering limelight of the White House" (Dodd, Mead, 1946)