The first wife of a presidential candidate to address a political convention was Eleanor Roosevelt, who, when asked by her husband to address the 1940 Democratic Convention in his place, promptly got on an airplane and flew to Chicago to do so. As soon as she finished her “no ordinary time” speech, the delegates cast their ballots and gave her husband his choice for the vice presidential nominee, Henry Wallace. More than 30 years passed before another first lady mounted the podium at a political convention, and it was a Republican, Pat Nixon, who spoke at the 1972 convention which nominated her husband for a second term.