"She was the lowest profile first lady we've had for a long time - I would go back to Bess Truman in the 1940s and early 1950s," says Katherine Jellison, a history professor at Ohio University and an expert in the role of first ladies.
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Mrs Truman did not emulate her predecessor, she adds, but "from Jacqueline Kennedy in the early '60s onward, every first lady has had at least one major high-profile public service project".
When he was first elected in 2016, she approached her own role very differently to her recent predecessors, spending a lot of time away from the White House.
"During her time as first lady, 12 years, that became an expectation," says Professor Jellison.
