World War One began in Europe on July 28, 1914, when the armies of Austro-Hungary launched an invasion of Serbia. At that time, President Woodrow Wilson was married to Ellen Axson Wilson. However, Mrs. Wilson was suffering from Brights disease, a type of kidney failure for which there was no adequate treatment at the time. Mrs. Wilson died just nine days later on August 6, 1914.
For the next several months, President Wilson was a remarkably lonely man. He was helped through this period by his cousin, Helen Bones, who assumed the duties of White House hostess after Ellen Wilson's death. In March 1915, some eight months after the passing of Wilson's first wife, Helen Bones, invited an acquaintance of hers to attend a White House function. The woman was Edith Bolling Galt, a 43 year old widow. Virtually as soon as the President met her, he took an instant liking to this woman, described as charming, independent, intelligent, and "plumply pretty." Wilson was a man who depended on having female companions around him to allow him to function freely. The liking turn quickly to love and on December 15, 1915, Wilson remarried. Edith Bolling Wilson Galt served as first lady through the balance of Wilson's presidency, wielding an iron hand over visitors to the President suffered a massive stroke in October 1919.
The United States did not enter World War I until April 4, 1917. The war ceased with the Armistice of November 11, 1918. This means that Edith Bolling Galt Wilson was first lady of the United States throughout World War One.