By McAvoy Layne…Around 1793, Philadelphia was laid low by a yellow fever epidemic.  Five thousand lives were lost.  A twenty-four-year-old Dolley Todd lost her husband, John. But Dolley soldiered on.  Somehow she managed to maintain a sunny disposition that was recorded by one admirer:  “Dolley’s radiance raised to fever heat the thermometers of the heart.”  

With feathers in her hair, she occupied the highest levels of society, where she was introduced to James Madison by Aaron Burr and bada-boom, bada-bing, the next thing anybody knew she was First Lady, and that was just what Dolley Madison was born to be…

“James, let’s throw a party.”

“What kind of a party?

“A fun party…a toga party!”

“Whatever.”

Dolley went straight to work on the invitations…

Dear friends and neighbors,

On the fourth of March, President James Madison will host a Toga Party at the White House.  Formal Greek attire will be required.  Muscat of Samos Wine will be served along with Baklava, Spanakopita and horiatiki soaked in olive oil.  Music will be provided by “Socrates Drunk the Hemlock,” and everyone will be required to dance along with the President to Zorba the Greek at midnight.  Karaoke singing will commence at 1 am.  Bring a friend… 

Well, that was a party to remember.  It brought James out of his shell, which bought him and Dolley a second term.  But what distinguishes Dolley to my mind, and makes her a hero of her time, really, is the way she single-handedly saved an American treasure…

In August of 1814, the British were coming, and they were not looking for a toga party either.  In fact, it was rumored they might loot the White House and burn it to the ground.  So Dolley got it in her estimable head to save the regal portrait of George Washington that hung there in the White House and hangs in the White House today.  She ordered that the frame of that regal portrait be unscrewed and the portrait delivered to the safe hands of a gentleman in New York.

“But there is no time, Madam, the British are coming!” protested an aide.

“Then destroy it!  It cannot fall into the hands of the Brits!”

“Alright, alright, I’ll try, Madam, but there are so many screws…”

That trusty aide unscrewed and unscrewed and unscrewed some more, until the portrait of George Washington fell off the wall into his hands.  He wanted to roll up the portrait for shipping, but again, Dolley came to the rescue and shouted, “No, you cannot roll it up, or it will be ruined, you must transport it flat-out!” 

Well, he done it.  Gilbert Stuart’s majestic portrait of the Father of Our Country was saved, and hangs today in the East Wing of White House, thanks to the insistence of one amazing First Lady, Dolley Madison.

And this is where our brief story of Dolley Madison comes to an end… 

Audio: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Fhv4PrH1UuwlhbnTT23zO

— For more than 35 years, in over 4,000 performances, columnist and Chautauquan McAvoy Layne has been dedicated to preserving the wit and wisdom of “The Wild Humorist of the Pacific Slope,” Mark Twain. As Layne puts it: “It’s like being a Monday through Friday preacher, whose sermon, though not reverently pious, is fervently American.”