Editor, News-Register:

As an historian, it was with a heavy heart that I watched the recent demolition of the East Wing of the White House.

Built in 1902 by Teddy Roosevelt and remodeled under FDR in 1941, it became the working space for our First Ladies, who walked those floors and labored within those walls. Let us remember these grand women that contributed so much to our nation: Eleanor Roosevelt, Bess Truman, Mamie Eisenhower, Jackie Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, Betty Ford, Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, Michelle Obama, Melania Trump and Jill Biden. Betty Ford spoke to how special the East Wing was: “If the West Wing is the mind of the nation, then the East Wing is the heart.”

No more. The walls, the floors, the colonnade, after 123 years, obliterated.

Such a loss.

Margaret Brennan

Wheeling