In the fond eyes of her husband, President James A. Garfield, Lucretia "grows up
to every new emergency with fine tact and faultless taste." She proved this in
the eyes of the nation, though she was always a reserved, self-contained woman.
She flatly refused to pose for a campaign photograph, and much preferred a
literary circle or informal party to a state reception.

Her love of learning she acquired from her father, Zeb Rudolph, a leading
citizen of Hiram, Ohio, and devout member of the Disciples of Christ. She first
met "Jim" Garfield when both attended a nearby school, and they renewed their
friendship in 1851 as students at the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute,
founded by the Disciples.

But "Crete" did not attract his special attention until December 1853, when he
began a rather cautious courtship, and they did not marry until November 1858,
when he was well launched on his career as a teacher. His service in the Union
Army from 1861 to 1863 kept them apart; their first child, a daughter, died in
1863. But after his first lonely winter in Washington as a freshman
Representative, the family remained together. With a home in the capital as well
as one in Ohio they enjoyed a happy domestic life. A two-year-old son died in
1876, but five children grew up healthy and promising; with the passage of time,
Lucretia became more and more her husband's companion.

In Washington they shared intellectual interests with congenial friends; she
went with him to meetings of a locally celebrated literary society. They read
together, made social calls together, dined with each other and traveled in
company until by 1880 they were as nearly inseparable as his career permitted.

Garfield's election to the Presidency brought a cheerful family to the White
House in 1881. Though Mrs. Garfield was not particularly interested in a First
Lady's social duties, she was deeply conscientious and her genuine hospitality
made her dinners and twice-weekly receptions enjoyable. At the age of 49 she was
still a slender, graceful little woman with clear dark eyes, her brown hair
beginning to show traces of silver.

In May she fell gravely ill, apparently from malaria and nervous exhaustion, to
her husband's profound distress. "When you are sick," he had written her seven
years earlier, "I am like the inhabitants of countries visited by earthquakes."
She was still a convalescent, at a seaside resort in New Jersey, when he was
shot by a demented assassin on July 2. She returned to Washington by special
train--"frail, fatigued, desperate," reported an eyewitness at the White House,
"but firm and quiet and full of purpose to save."

During the three months her husband fought for his life, her grief, devotion,
and fortitude won the respect and sympathy of the country. In September, after
his death, the bereaved family went home to their farm in Ohio. For another 36
years she led a strictly private but busy and comfortable life, active in
preserving the records of her husband's career. She died on March 14, 1918.