question

[Kristen and Ted]

Hello,

I'm writing a story on "First Ladies", pastors' wives in African-American churches for the State Journal Register in Springfield, Illinois, and I am having a really hard time finding out the history behind the term.  It's a colloquial phrase.  I've tried a bunch of sites with no success.  Here is a list of most of them (from mediabistro.com)--I also tried religionsource, faith.com, beliefnet, google, altavista, ask jeeves and various online dictionaries.

I do know that the term "first lady" was originally used for President Rutherford Hayes' wife, Lucy Webb Hayes.  He took office in 1877.  So the question would be how/when the phrase spread into wider usage, specifically into African-American churches.

Thank you very much for your assistance.
Kristen Schmid
kristen-ted at sbcglobal.net
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