A Romantic (State) Dinner President William McKinley’s wife, Ida, was once a high-spirited socialite, but the deaths of her two young daughters and epileptic seizures left her frail and withdrawn. As McKinley’s political career blossomed, “Ida spent most of her waking hours in a small Victorian rocking chair that she had had since childhood,” waiting for her husband to come home But when McKinley took office in 1897, he didn’t hide Ida from view he insisted that his wife be seated beside him.
