| Margaret Wilson | |
| Order: | Acting |
| Office: | First Lady of the United States |
| President: | Woodrow Wilson |
| Term Start: | August 6, 1914 |
| Term End: | December 18, 1915 |
| Term Label: | In role |
| Predecessor: | Ellen Wilson |
| Successor: | Edith Wilson |
| Birth Name: | Margaret Woodrow Wilson |
| Birth Date: | 16 April 1886 |
| Birth Place: | Gainesville, Georgia, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Pondicherry, French India |
| Parents: | |
Margaret Woodrow Wilson (April 16, 1886 – February 12, 1944) was the eldest child of Woodrow Wilson and Ellen Louise Axson. After her mother's death in 1914, Margaret served her father as the White House social hostess,[1] the title later known as first lady. She acted in this capacity until her father remarried in 1915.
Margaret Woodrow Wilson was born in Gainesville, Georgia, on April 16, 1886. At the time of her birth, Wilson's parents were living near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; her father was on the faculty of Bryn Mawr College. Both of her parents strongly identified with the South. Consequently, Ellen Wilson did not want her children born as Yankees and arranged to stay with family in Gainesville for Margaret's birth. Margaret attended local schools, some of which were associated with the colleges where her father taught.
She had two siblings: Jessie, and Eleanor.
In his will, Wilson's father had bequeathed her an annuity of $2,500 annually (worth $ today) as long as that amount did not exceed one-third of the annual income of his estate, and as long as she remained unmarried.[2] Wilson sang, and she made several recordings. In 1914, "My Laddie" was released on Columbia Records, #39195.[3]
In 1938 Margaret Wilson traveled to the ashram of Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry, India, where she remained for the rest of her life. She became a member and devotee of the ashram and was given the new name Nistha, meaning "dedication" in Sanskrit. She and the scholar Joseph Campbell edited the English translation of the classical work on the Hindu mystic, Sri Ramakrishna, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Nikhilananda, which was published in 1942, by Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, New York.[4]
Wilson died from uremia on February 12, 1944, at the age of 57, and was buried in Pondicherry, India, unmarried, and without issue.[5]