Use in The United States
While historically the term has generally been used to refer to the wife of a president, there were occasions when another woman, such as the President's daughter, has filled the duties of First Lady as hostess in the White House, if the President's wife was unwilling, unable, or if the President was a widower or bachelor. The current First Lady of the United States is Michelle Obama, wife of Barack Obama. In American media the term First Lady is often applied to the wife of a head of state in another country, irrespective of whether a different appellation (or none) is used in that country. The entire family of the head of state may be known familiarly as the "First Family". The spouse of the second-in-command (such as a Vice President) may be known as the "Second Lady", or Vice-First Lady. Less frequently, the family would be known as the "Second Family". The spouse of the governor of a U.S. state is commonly referred to as the First Lady or First Gentleman of that state, for example "First Lady Jessica Doyle of Wisconsin." The practice is less common for spouses of mayors but is nevertheless used for some, particularly in large cities; example: "First Lady Amy Rule of Chicago" or "First Lady Kris Barrett of Milwaukee." Mike Gregoire, husband of Washington's governor Chris Gregoire, website prefers to use his name instead of a common noun, calling himself "First Mike".
Read more about this topic: First Lady
Famous quotes containing the words united states, united and/or states:
“The United States have a coffle of four millions of slaves. They are determined to keep them in this condition; and Massachusetts is one of the confederated overseers to prevent their escape.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Why doesn’t the United States take over the monarchy and unite with England? England does have important assets. Naturally the longer you wait, the more they will dwindle. At least you could use it for a summer resort instead of Maine.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“The people of the United States have been fortunate in many things. One of the things in which we have been most fortunate has been that so far, due perhaps to certain basic virtues in our traditional ways of doing things, we have managed to keep the crisis of western civilization, which has devastated the rest of the world and in which we are as much involved as anybody, more or less at arm’s length.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)