There was little resemblance between the vivacious young woman who married
William McKinley in January 1871--a slender bride with sky-blue eyes and fair
skin and masses of auburn hair--and the petulant invalid who moved into the
White House with him in March 1897. Now her face was pallid and drawn, her
close-cropped hair gray; her eyes were glazed with pain or dulled with
sedative. Only one thing had remained the same: love which had brightened early
years of happiness and endured through more than twenty years of illness.

Ida had been born in Canton, Ohio, in 1847, elder daughter of a socially
prominent and well-to-do family. James A. Saxton, a banker, was indulgent to
his two daughters. He educated them well in local schools and a finishing
school, and then sent them to Europe on the grand tour.

Being pretty, fashionable, and a leader of the younger set in Canton did not
satisfy Ida, so her broad-minded father suggested that she work in his bank. As
a cashier she caught the attention of Maj. William McKinley, who had come to
Canton in 1867 to establish a law practice, and they fell deeply in love. While
he advanced in his profession, his young wife devoted her time to home and
husband. A daughter, Katherine, was born on Christmas Day, 1871; a second, in
April 1873. This time Ida was seriously ill, and the frail baby died in August.
Phlebitis and epileptic seizures shattered the mother's health; and even before
little Katie died in 1876, she was a confirmed invalid.

As Congressman and then as governor of Ohio, William McKinley was never far
from her side. He arranged their life to suit her convenience. She spent most
of her waking hours in a small Victorian rocking chair that she had had since
childhood; she sat doing fancy work and crocheting bedroom slippers while she
waited for her husband, who indulged her every whim.

At the White House, the McKinleys acted as if her health were no great handicap
to her role as First Lady. Richly and prettily dressed, she received guests at
formal receptions seated in a blue velvet chair. She held a fragrant bouquet to
suggest that she would not shake hands. Contrary to protocol, she was seated
beside the President at state dinners and he, as always, kept close watch for
signs of an impending seizure. If necessary, he would cover her face with a
large handkerchief for a moment. The First Lady and her devoted husband seemed
oblivious to any social inadequacy. Guests were discreet and newspapers silent
on the subject of her "fainting spells." Only in recent years have the facts of
her health been revealed.

When the President was shot by an assassin in September 1901, after his second
inauguration, he thought primarily of her. He murmured to his secretary: "My
wife--be careful, Cortelyou, how you tell her--oh, be careful." After his
death, she lived in Canton, cared for by her younger sister, visiting her
husband's grave almost daily. She died in 1907, and lies entombed beside the
President and near their two little daughters in Canton's McKinley Memorial
Mausoleum.