Biography

Attended De Pauw University (Greencastle, Indiana) for two years.

Member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.

Her wedding was two days late because her fiancée, then a First Lieutenant in the 325th Artillery Regiment, was caught in a blizzard as he traveled from his post at Camp Zachary Taylor near Louisville, Kentucky and the bride's home in Rushville, Indiana. The blizzard had knocked the furnace out of action, so the guests had to wear overcoats. Even though her bridal bouquet was frozen solid, she carried it throughout the marriage ceremony.

Her only child, Philip Herman Willkie (1919-1974), served in the Indiana legislature, 1949-55.

Assistant librarian in Rushville, Indiana.

[on campaigning by train in 1940] I would get so tired. But I would try to keep clean. The bathtub in the railroad car would only hold about eight inches of water.

I remember Wendell saying to me, "Now, Billie, all life is a series of experiences. We may be up today, but let's not let all this affect us because we may be down tomorrow." It is too bad when we can't accept grief and we let it wreck us.

[on her first press conference after her husband's 1940 nomination for president] I had to meet 30 of the topmost reporters after having been up until 3 a.m. I don't know what I said but they all wrote nice stories. ... One reporter asked me how I felt when my husband was nominated. I said I was too numb to feel and her story said I was too dumb to feel.