As "the only unusual incident" of her girlhood, "Nellie" Herron Taft recalled
her visit to the White House at 17 as the guest of President and Mrs. Hayes,
intimate friends of her parents. Fourth child of Harriet Collins and John W.
Herron, born in 1861, she had grown up in Cincinnati, Ohio, attending a private
school in the city and studying music with enthusiasm.

The year after this notable visit she met "that adorable Will Taft," a tall
young lawyer, at a sledding party. They found intellectual interests in common;
friendship matured into love; Helen Herron and William Howard Taft were married
in 1886. A "treasure," he called her, "self-contained, independent, and of
unusual application." He wondered if they would ever reach Washington "in any
official capacity" and suggested to her that they might -- when she became
Secretary of the Treasury!

No woman could hope for such a career in that day, but Mrs. Taft welcomed each
step in her husband's: state judge, Solicitor General of the United States,
federal circuit judge. In 1900 he agreed to take charge of American civil
government in the Philippines. By now the children numbered three: Robert,
Helen, and Charles. The delight with which she undertook the journey, and her
willingness to take her children to a country still unsettled by war, were
characteristic of this woman who loved a challenge. In Manila she handled a
difficult role with enthusiasm and tact; she relished travel to Japan and China,
and a special diplomatic mission to the Vatican.

Further travel with her husband, who became Secretary of War in 1904, brought a
widened interest in world politics and a cosmopolitan circle of friends. His
election to the Presidency in 1908 gave her a position she had long desired.

As First Lady, she still took an interest in politics but concentrated on
giving the administration a particular social brilliance. Only two months after
the inauguration she suffered a severe stroke. An indomitable will had her back
in command again within a year. At the New Year's reception for 1910, she
appeared in white crepe embroidered with gold--a graceful figure. Her daughter
left college for a year to take part in social life at the White House, and the
gaiety of Helen's debut enhanced the 1910 Christmas season.

During four years famous for social events, the most outstanding was an evening
garden party for several thousand guests on the Tafts' silver wedding
anniversary, June 19, 1911. Mrs. Taft remembered this as "the greatest event" in
her White House experience. Her own book, Recollections of Full Years, gives her
account of a varied life. And the capital's famous Japanese cherry trees,
planted around the Tidal Basin at her request, form a notable memorial.

Her public role in Washington did not end when she left the White House. In
1921 her husband was appointed Chief Justice of the United States--the position
he had desired most of all--and she continued to live in the capital after his
death in 1930. Retaining to the end her love of travel and of classical music,
she died at her home on May 22, 1943.