Eisenhower Read Online Free Page B

about Eisenhower’s ability to support a family, consented, initially with the caveat that he wanted to postpone the wedding until the fall, when Mamie would be twenty. Instead, the brewing conflict with Mexico stirred anxiety that Ike might be deployed in combat, and the two were married at noon on July 1, 1916. Mamie’s father escorted her down the stairs of the family home and to the fireplace altar. There were no attendants, and the service was brief. Afterward, Ike tried to commemorate the event by preserving Mamie’s bouquet in wax; it melted.
    The honeymoon was similarly modest. The couple spent a few days at a resort in Eldorado Springs, outside Denver. The newlyweds briefly returned to Denver before heading by train to Abilene, where they arrived at 3:00 a.m. and Mamie met Ike’s family for the first time. She took an instant liking to Milton. “I’ve always wanted to have a brother!” she exclaimed, kissing him on the cheek. He was charmed.
    The early years of Ike and Mamie’s marriage were often difficult as they learned to support each other amid the rigors of Army life. Raised in his stern home and educated at West Point, Ike could be domineering, while Mamie, the product of her more voluble and emotional upbringing, was occasionally tempestuous. Soon after their wedding, the two experienced their first fight, and Mamie struck Ike’s hand. Their rings collided, and Mamie’s broke the amethyst stone in Ike’s. “Well, young lady,” he said coldly, “for that display of temper you will replace this stone with your own money.” And yet Ike also could be a dedicated and thoughtful husband: at every wedding anniversary through the 1930s, he added one piece of silver to Mamie’s tea set, eventually completing it; she displayed it with pride the rest of her life.
    If Ike was sometimes bossy and Mamie could be prissy, well, they adjusted. Mamie had grown up wealthy and was now forced to cope with Army life, though the privations were eased somewhat by an allowance from her father. Ike had grown up with men and boys and now had to adjust himself to life with a woman. He showed affection with a gentle pinch more often than a warm embrace; he cooked but preferred to do so on a grill or over a fire. He enjoyed cards—he had long been a ferocious poker player and later developed into such a demanding bridge partner that many of his closest friends hated to be his partner—but found it difficult to play with Mamie because she would make mistakes and he could be witheringly critical. “Ike never had the slightest notion how to live with women,” Mamie gently complained in retirement.
    Fifteen months after Ike and Mamie were married, they were parents. Doud Dwight Eisenhower was born on September 24, 1917, his father a newly promoted captain. His parents called him Ikey at first, then Icky. He was a healthy boy, spirited and bright, openly adored by his father. When Ike and Mamie were transferred to Fort Meade, soldiers there nicknamed him “Mascot of the Corps.” He loved to march about in his miniature Army uniform and was delighted by football and tanks, parades and pageantry. Ike’s reserve melted in the presence of his son. “I was inclined to display Icky and his talents at the slightest excuse, or without one, for that matter,” Eisenhower wrote many years later. “In his company, I’m sure I strutted a bit and Mamie was thoroughly happy that … her two men were with her.”
    As Christmas of 1920 approached, Ike splurged on his son. The house was decorated. A red tricycle shimmered beneath the tree. A few days before the holiday, Mamie went into town to do some shopping and returned to find that Icky was not feeling well. The base doctor looked at him but thought little of it, suggesting that perhaps he’d eaten something that did not agree with him. Then Icky began to run a fever, and the following morning the doctor advised that he be admitted to the hospital. As he was carried out of the