Myrtle Hill Cemetery - Ellen Axson Wilson

Ellen Axson Wilson

The only U.S. First Lady buried in Georgia is buried in Myrtle Hill Cemetery. Ellen Axson Wilson, was the first wife of President Woodrow Wilson. Ellen Louise Axson Wilson was the daughter of Reverend S. E. Axson, who was a Presbyterian minister and Margaret Hoyt Axson. She was born in Savannah, Georgia but grew up in Rome. She graduated from the Rome Female College and later studied Art at the Students' Art League in New York. In the Spring of 1883, she met Woodrow Wilson, a young lawyer from Atlanta, Georgia. They were married in 1885 and moved to Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania where Mr. Wilson taught at the newly formed Bryn Mawr College. After Wilson became the president of Princeton University in 1902 and the governor of New Jersey in 1910, he became the U.S. President in 1912. Ellen was the First Lady who had a studio with a skylight installed at the White House in 1913, and found time for painting and the duties of hostess for the nation. With her health failing slowly from Bright's disease (chronic nephritis), she died August 6, 1914. After her death, her body was taken to Rome by a train with five private cars for President Wilson. The procession, a two-horse drawn funeral carriage, from First Presbyterian Church to Myrtle Hill Cemetery passed down Broad Street, which was lined with Romans. As the graveside service began, rain began to fall as if the sky were weeping. Mrs. Wilson was buried with her father, her mother, and her brother. Stockton Axson.