The family of

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

, the 34th

president of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United St ...

, and his wife, Mamie, consists predominantly of German and

Pennsylvania Dutch The Pennsylvania Dutch (Pennsylvania Dutch: ), also known as Pennsylvania Germans, are a cultural group formed by German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. They emigrated primarily from German-spe ...

background. They are related by marriage to the family of

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

, who was Eisenhower's vice-president, and was later the 37th president of the United States.

Family tree

Family background

The Eisenhauer (German for "iron hewer/miner") family migrated from

Karlsbrunn Karlsbrunn is a German village that is part of the municipality of Großrosseln. It is situated in the district of Saarbrücken, which is part of the federal state of Saarland. Its population is about 1,000 inhabitants. Geography The village lies ...

in Nassau-Saarbrücken, to America, first settling in

York, Pennsylvania York (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Yarrick''), known as the White Rose City (after the symbol of the House of York), is the county seat of York County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the south-central region of the state. The populatio ...

, in 1741, and in the 1880s moving to Kansas. Accounts vary as to how and when the German name Eisenhauer was

anglicized Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influen ...

to Eisenhower. Eisenhower's

ancestors, who were primarily farmers, included Hans Nikolaus Eisenhauer of Karlsbrunn, who migrated to

Lancaster, Pennsylvania Lancaster, ( ; pdc, Lengeschder) is a city in and the county seat of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States. With a population at the 2020 census of 58,039, it ranks 11th in population among ...

, in 1741. Dwight D. Eisenhower's lineage also included English ancestors and Scottish ancestors.

Parents and siblings

The great-grandson of Hans Nikolaus Eisenhauer was Jacob Eisenhower, a Kansas farmer. Jacob's son, David Jacob Eisenhower (1863–1942), was Dwight D. Eisenhower's father. David Jacob was a college-educated engineer, despite his father having urged him to stay on the family farm. David owned a general store in

Hope, Kansas Hope is a city in southern Dickinson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 317. History Early history For many millennia, the Great Plains of North America was inhabited by nomadic Native Ame ...

, but the business failed due to economic conditions and the family became impoverished. The Eisenhowers then lived in Texas from 1889 until 1892, and later returned to Kansas, with $24 () to their name at the time. David worked as a railroad mechanic and then at a creamery. Eisenhower's mother, Ida Elizabeth (Stover) Eisenhower, born in Virginia, of predominantly German Protestant ancestry, moved to Kansas from Virginia. She married David on September 23, 1885, in

Lecompton, Kansas Lecompton (pronounced ) is a city in Douglas County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 588. Lecompton was the ''de jure'' territorial capital of Kansas from 1855 to 1861, and the Douglas County seat f ...

, on the campus of their alma mater,

Lane University Lane University was a college located in Lecompton, Kansas, United States. By 1898, the parents made a decent living and provided a suitable home for their large family. They had seven children, all sons, of whom one died in infancy. *Arthur Bradford Eisenhower (1886–January 27, 1958) * Edgar Newton Eisenhower (January 19, 1889 – July 12, 1971) *Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) *Roy Jacob Eisenhower (1892 – June 7, 1942) *Paul Dawson Eisenhower (May 12, 1894 – March 16, 1895) * Earl Dewey Eisenhower (February 1, 1898 – December 18, 1968) * Milton Stover Eisenhower (September 15, 1899 – May 2, 1985) Of these, Milton was the most notable of the brothers other than Dwight. Milton became an American educational administrator, serving as president of three major American universities:

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

(1943–1950),

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

(1950–1956), and

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consiste ...

(1956–1957). On October 12, 1927, Eisenhower married Helen Elsie Eakin (1904–1954), with whom he had a son, Milton Stover Eisenhower, Jr., in 1930 and a daughter, Ruth Eakin Eisenhower, in 1938. Earl also achieved a measure of notability, having been elected to a term in the Illinois House of Representatives, from 1965 to 1967. Earl married Kathryn McIntyre Snyder in 1933, with whom he had two children. Edgar graduated from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1914, and began practicing law in 1915 in

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Pa ...

; he became was known as a "shoot from the hip ultraconservative." Edgar was married three times, first to Louise Alexander Eisenhower (1893–1946) in 1911, then to Bernice Thompson Eisenhower (1902–1948) in 1930, and finally to Lucille Dawson Eisenhower (1921–2012) in 1951. Edgar had two children, both with his first wife, Merrill Jack Eisenhower (1916–1956), and Janis Louise Eisenhower Causin (1922–2000).

Immediate family

Mamie Eisenhower

While Eisenhower was stationed in Texas, he met Mamie Doud of

Boone, Iowa Boone ( ) is a city in Des Moines Township, and county seat of Boone County, Iowa, United States. It is the principal city of the Boone, Iowa Micropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Boone County. This micropolitan statistical ...

. Doud was the second child born to John Sheldon Doud (1870–1951), a

meatpacking The meat-packing industry (also spelled meatpacking industry or meat packing industry) handles the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of meat from animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock. Poultry is generally n ...

executive, and his wife, Elivera Mathilda Carlson (1878–1960).Susan Eisenhower, "Mrs. Ike: Memories and Reflections on the Life of Mamie Eisenhower" (Capitol Books, 2002) She grew up in

Cedar Rapids, Iowa Cedar Rapids () is the second-largest city in Iowa, United States and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, north of Iowa City and northeast of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city. I ...

Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...

, and the Doud winter home in

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

. Her father, who retired at age 36, ran a meatpacking company founded by his father, Doud & Montgomery ("Buyers of Live Hogs"), and had investments in Illinois and Iowa stockyards. Her mother was a daughter of Swedish immigrants. She had three sisters: Eleanor Carlson Doud, Eda Mae Doud, and Mabel Frances "Mike" Doud. Doud and Eisenhower were immediately taken with each other. He proposed to her on Valentine's Day in 1916. A November wedding date in Denver was moved up to July 1 due to the pending U.S. entry into World War I. They moved many times during their first 35 years of marriage.

Children

The Eisenhowers had two sons, Doud Dwight "Icky" Eisenhower, and John Eisenhower. He is the most recently serving U.S. president (as of 2022) to have had only sons. Five of his successors – L. Johnson,

Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was t ...

, Clinton, G.W. Bush, and

Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

– only had daughters.

Doud Eisenhower

Doud Dwight Eisenhower (September 24, 1917 – January 2, 1921) was the first son of Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower. He was named "Doud" in honor of his mother (whose maiden name was Doud) and "Dwight" in honor of his father. He was commonly called "Ikky" (pronounced as "icky") by his parents. Doud was born in

, then he and his mother moved to

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

, while his father was stationed at Camp Meade in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to it ...

. Regarding Dwight's family contacts while on the U.S. Army's 1919

Transcontinental Motor Convoy The Transcontinental Motor Convoys were early 20th century vehicle convoys, including three US Army truck trains, that crossed the United States (one was coast-to-coast) to the west coast. The 1919 Motor Transport Corps convoy from Washington, ...

, biographers Lester and Irene David wrote:

He called Mamie several times a week hile on the convoy beginning each call with requests for news about . How was he growing? What new mischief had he gotten into? Once Mamie interrupted with, "Listen here...how about asking how your wife is?" Chastened; Ike chatted for a moment about Mamie but soon turned the conversation to Icky again. Mamie gave up.

After he and his family relocated to

Fort Meade Fort George G. Meade is a United States Army installation located in Maryland, that includes the Defense Information School, the Defense Media Activity, the United States Army Field Band, and the headquarters of United States Cyber Command, the ...

Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

, his mother hired a 16-year-old local girl as a maid. She had been recovering from

scarlet fever Scarlet fever, also known as Scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'' a Group A streptococcus (GAS). The infection is a type of Group A streptococcal infection (Group A strep). It most commonly affects childr ...

. In December 1920, shortly before

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, ...

, Ikky caught scarlet fever from her. Though his mother tried desperately to save him, even calling a specialist from

Johns Hopkins Hospital The Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. It was founded in 1889 using money from a bequest of over $7 million (1873 mo ...

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

, Ikky died on January 2, 1921. His

father A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fath ...

referred to this incident as "the most shattering moment of their lives, one that almost destroyed their marriage". Mamie and Dwight blamed themselves for Ikky's death; had they checked the girl's background, they would have found out that she had scarlet fever. In his biography of Eisenhower,

Stephen E. Ambrose Stephen Edward Ambrose (January 10, 1936 – October 13, 2002) was an American historian, most noted for his biographies of U.S. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. He was a longtime professor of history at the University of New Or ...

wrote:

These feelings had to be suppressed if the marriage was to survive the disaster, but suppression did not eliminate the unwanted thoughts, only made them harder to live with. Both the inner-directed guilt and the projected feelings of blame placed a strain on their marriage. So did the equally inevitable sense of loss, the grief that could not be comforted, the feeling that all the joy had gone out of life. "For a long time, it was as if a shining light had gone out in Ike's life," Mamie said later. "Throughout all the years that followed, the memory of those bleak days was a deep inner pain that never seemed to diminish much."

On January 7, 1921, less than a week after his death, Ikky was buried in Fairmont Cemetery in

. Eisenhower was mostly reticent to discuss his death. In 1966, he was re-interred at the Eisenhower Presidential Center. His parents were buried next to him. In 1967, Eisenhower would look to Ikky's death as "the greatest disappointment and disaster of my life, the one I have never been able to forget completely". For the rest of his life, he sent Mamie flowers on Ikky's birthday each year.

John Eisenhower

John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower (August 3, 1922 – December 21, 2013) was born in

. John served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

, his decorated military career spanned from before, during, and after his father's presidency, and he retired from active duty as a brigadier general in 1963 and then altogether in 1974. Coincidentally, John graduated from

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

on D-Day, June 6, 1944. After his military service, he became an author and military historian, and served as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium from 1969 to 1971, during the administration of President Richard Nixon, previously his father's vice president. John Eisenhower married Barbara Jean Thompson on June 10, 1947, only a few days before her twenty-first birthday. Barbara was born on June 15, 1926, in

Fort Knox, Kentucky Fort Knox is a United States Army installation in Kentucky, south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. It is adjacent to the United States Bullion Depository, which is used to house a large portion of the United States' official gold rese ...

, into an Army family. She was the daughter of

Col. Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

Percy Walter Thompson (November 8, 1898 – June 19, 1974) by his wife Beatrice (née Birchfield). Col. Thompson was commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces. John and Barbara had four children:

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

, Barbara Ann, Susan Elaine, and Mary Jean. David, after whom

Camp David Camp David is the country retreat for the president of the United States of America. It is located in the wooded hills of Catoctin Mountain Park, in Frederick County, Maryland, near the towns of Thurmont and Emmitsburg, about north-northwes ...

is named, married

's daughter Julie in 1968. John and Barbara divorced in 1986 after thirty-nine years of marriage. In 1988, Barbara married widower Edwin J. Foltz, a former vice president at the

Campbell Soup Company Campbell Soup Company, doing business as Campbell's, is an American processed food and snack company. The company is most closely associated with its flagship canned soup products; however, through mergers and acquisitions, it has grown to beco ...

. She died on September 19, 2014, in Gladwyne, Montgomery County,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Mary ...

. In 1988, John married Joanne Thompson. He lived in Trappe, Maryland, after moving there from Kimberton, Pennsylvania.

Extended family

Grandchildren

David Eisenhower (1948–present)

Dwight David Eisenhower II (born March 31, 1948), better known as

David Eisenhower Dwight David Eisenhower II (born March 31, 1948) is an American author, public policy fellow, professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and eponym of the U.S. presidential retreat Camp David. He is the grandson of President Dwight D. Eisenh ...

is an American author, public policy fellow, professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and eponym of the U.S. presidential retreat, Camp David. He is the only grandson of Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the son-in-law of

by marriage to Nixon's daughter, Julie Nixon. The couple had three children: Jennie Elizabeth (born August 15, 1978), an actress, Alexander Richard (b. 1980) and Melanie Catherine Eisenhower (b. 1984).

Anne Eisenhower (1949–2022)

Barbara Anne Eisenhower (May 30, 1949 – July 30, 2022), better known as Anne Eisenhower, was a prominent interior designer based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, New York. Anne's first husband was Fernando Echavarría-Uribe, an insurance executive from

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the largest ...

, Colombia, whom she met while vacationing in South America in 1966."Barbara's Intended", ''The Burlington Free Press'' (October 28, 1968), p. 2. They married in November 1968, and six months later had a daughter, Adriana Echavarría (born May 29, 1969). Adriana became a photographer, and was married for a time to Eduardo Mendoza de la Torre, the ex vice minister of justice in Colombia and later a vice president of Avianca Airlines, who was the only man to have ever testified against the notorious drug lord

Pablo Escobar Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (; ; 1 December 19492 December 1993) was a Colombian drug lord and narcoterrorist who was the founder and sole leader of the Medellín Cartel. Dubbed "the king of cocaine", Escobar is the wealthiest criminal in ...

. Through Adriana, Anna had two grandchildren, Camila and Nicolás Mendoza-Eisenhower. In the 1980s, Anne married Wolfgang Flöttl, a billionaire

hedge-fund A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as shor ...

manager who once owned an art collection with pieces by Van Gogh, Picasso, and Cézanne. Anne filed for divorce from Flöttl in 2018.

Susan Eisenhower (1951–present)

Susan Elaine Eisenhower (born December 31, 1951) is an American consultant, author, and expert on

international security International security, also called global security is a term which refers to the measures taken by states and international organizations, such as the United Nations, European Union, and others, to ensure mutual survival and safety. These meas ...

space policy Space policy is the political decision-making process for, and application of, public policy of a state (or association of states) regarding spaceflight and uses of outer space, both for civilian (scientific and commercial) and military purposes. I ...

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat ...

, and relations between the Russian Federation and the United States of America. Susan has been married three times, first to Alexander H. Bradshaw, a London barrister, with whom she has two children, secondly to John Mahon, an American lawyer, with whom she had a daughter, Amelia Eisenhower Mahon, and finally to Russian space scientist

Roald Sagdeev Roald Zinnurovich Sagdeev (russian: Роальд Зиннурович Сагдеев, tt-Cyrl, Роальд Зиннур улы Сәгъдиев; born 26 December 1932) is a Russian expert in plasma physics and a former director of the Space Res ...

, formerly the director of the

Russian Space Research Institute The Russian Space Research Institute (russian: Институт космических исследований Российской академии наук, Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, SRI RAS, Russian abbrevia ...

Hero of Socialist Labor The Hero of Socialist Labour (russian: links=no, Герой Социалистического Труда, Geroy Sotsialisticheskogo Truda) was an honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It repre ...

, and pro-democracy advocate.

Mary Jean Eisenhower (1955–present)

Mary Jean Eisenhower (born December 21, 1955) is an American humanitarian. She is the president and chief executive officer (and former

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

and

chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

) of People to People International. She married Army 2nd Lt. James Brewton Millard in May 1976, at a private military ceremony in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, attended by her grandmother, former First Lady Mamie Eisenhower.

References

Books

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eisenhower, Dwight David, Family of

Family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideall ...

First Families of the United States American people of English descent American people of Swedish descent American people of Swiss-German descent