amused
When Grover Cleveland married Frances Folsom, he was 49 and she was 21. Francis was the daughter of Cleveland's longtime friend and law partner Oscar Folsom. Frances was the only Folsom child to survive infancy.
Folsom and Cleveland shared more than just a friendship. In the election of 1885, Cleveland's opponents reported that Cleveland had fathered an illegitimate child while he was a lawyer in Buffalo. Their chant "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?" rose as an unofficial campaign slogan for those who opposed him. When confronted with the scandal, Cleveland's instructions to his campaign staff were: "Tell the truth." Cleveland admitted to paying child support in 1874 to Maria Crofts Halpin, the woman who claimed he fathered her child named Oscar Folsom Cleveland. Miss Halpin was involved with several men at the time, including Oscar Folsom, for whom the child was named. Cleveland did not know which man was the father, and is believed to have assumed responsibility because he was the only bachelor among them. After Cleveland won the election, his supporters would answer the question "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?" with the reply "Gone to the White House, ha ha ha!"
Not many people can say they knew their spouse from birth, but Cleveland took an instant interest in Frances, buying her a baby carriage and otherwise doting on her as she grew up. When Oscar Folsom died in a buggy accident in 1875 without having written a will, the court appointed Cleveland administrator of his estate and guardian of Frances, then age 11. Frances attended Central High School in Buffalo and later Wells College in Aurora, New York.
Sometime while she was in college, Cleveland's feelings for her took a romantic turn. He proposed by letter in August 1885, soon after her graduation. They did not announce their engagement, however, until just five days before the wedding.
Frances, age 21, married President Grover Cleveland, age 49, on June 2, 1886, at the White House. Their age disparity of 27 years is the second largest of any Presidential marriage. Cleveland was the only president to be married in the White House (John Tyler was older than his second wife Julia by 30 years). President Cleveland worked as usual on his wedding day.
The ceremony, a small affair attended by relatives, close friends and the cabinet and their wives, was performed at 7 p.m. in the Blue Room of the White House by the Reverend Byron Sutherland, assisted by the Reverend William Cleveland, the president's brother. The words "honor, love, and keep" were substituted for "honor, love and obey". John Philip Sousa and the Marine Band provided the music. The couple spent a five-day honeymoon at Deer Park in the Cumberland Mountains of Western Maryland.