Author to address AAUW

What do Lucy Hayes, Lucretia Garfield, Frances Cleveland and Caroline Harrison have in common? Besides being First Ladies that most people have not heard of, they represented the American image of the "new woman" after the Civil War.

Author Feather Schwartz Foster, a New Jersey resident, will be discussing these remarkably unremarkable women - as well as several other "unknown" First Ladies, according to her book, "Ladies: A Conjecture of Personalities" at a meeting of the Freehold American Association of University Women.

The meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. March 8 at the Barkalow Middle School, Stillwells Corner Road, Freehold Town-ship. A book signing will follow. The meeting is open to the public.

According to the author, "After the Civil War, women made a giant leap forward. They would no longer be content to remain in the background, with no outlet for their talents and abilities.

"Education for women was no longer a 'fringe' item. Most women after the Civil War received at least basic education, and higher learning for women, i.e., high school and college, was becoming common.

"The huge number of widows and orphaned daughters following the Civil War quadrupled the number of women in the workplace, and many new fields of employment were opening. And the fact that women were so important in the war effort meant that intelligent women would no longer be content to remain occupied with trivia. The post-Civil War First Ladies provided a public view of the quintessential 'new woman' that had never been noticed before," the author said.

Foster has been an "amateur" presidential historian for three decades. Following a long career in advertising and having written a score of children's musical shows, she has decided to draw on her thousand-volume personal presidential library and her love of history by penning "Ladies: A Conjecture."

Her second novel, "Garfield's Train," was recently published and deals with President James Garfield's death in Long Branch in 1881. A children's book, "T: An Auto-Biography" about a Model-T Ford, will be formally released in April.