When David and Mary Wood Beasley moved into the Mansion, they brought with them three young children, two still in diapers. Beasley emphasized the Mansion as a home, noting, “We played more hide and go seek back here. Oh, my goodness. I had so much fun in these gardens. With little kids, these gardens are wonderful. We probably had hundreds of kids over here every month, playing with our kids. This was just Columbia's playground.”
Beasley also spoke of playing hooky from a formal state occasion, “I was worn out. I snuck out, snuck upstairs, got with the kids, took my black tie and everything off, put my blue jeans on, watched an hour and a half of TV with the kids, ate some popcorn, put my black tie back on, went back downstairs, nobody ever knew. [laughter] They thought I was in that room, or that room, or this room.”