Baby No. 1958

At 4:58 p.m., four days before Christmas, a baby girl was born to Major and Mrs. John Eisenhower, the only son and daughter-in-law of the President. It was Barbara Eisenhower's fourth child, her third girl, and mother and baby were both reported "doing very well." The baby's weight was 7 Ibs., 2 oz.; her name was Mary Jean.

That evening the President and the First Lady arrived at Washington's Walter Reed Hospital and took the elevator upstairs to meet Mary Jean, Baby No. 1958 born at the U.S. Army's Walter Reed this year. They emerged about an hour later, still smiling. "I don't know what color her eyes are," said beaming Mamie Eisenhower, "but she sure has blonde hair."

The birth of Mary Jean seemed to be for the President the most joyous event of the year. She drew him back from Gettysburg to the White House a day earlier than planned; she dominated the traditional holiday reception the next morning for the 700 members of the White House staff. Accompanied by Mamie Eisenhower, in a Christmas-red wool jersey dress, the President accepted congratulations beneath an 18-ft. spruce Christmas tree decorated with silver tinsel and electric candles. Everyone at the reception got a Christmas present from the new grandfather: a print of an oil painting that the President started the week before his late heart attack and finished painting in the hospital at Denver. The print showed a snowscape of St. Louis Creek, in the Rockies, where the President often liked to fish. "He knows every rock in the stream," said one of the recipients.

All week Mamie Eisenhower talked happily about the dimensions and expressions of Mary Jean. "She looks like an Eisenhower," she said. "She has that broad look across the eyes. She's as cute as can be. She's blonde and very beautiful. She opened her eyes and peeked at me." Mamie concluded: "I've been receiving congratulations with a great glow."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.