Though most Americans are aware that Eleanor Roosevelt conducted many of the Affairs of the White House during President Roosevelt's affliction, she was not the first.  When President Woodrow Wilson collapsed while speaking in Pueblo, CO in 1919, he suffered a cerebral hemorage that paralyzed him.  His wife,  Edith, did her best to hide the seriousness of the President's condition from the public, and reportedly ran most White House Affairs.  It became known as the "Petticoat Government".