First Ladies facts
Besides their husbands, what sets apart the first ladies?
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- Abigail Fillmore
- Began the first White House library
- Lucy W. Hayes
- First First Lady to graduate from college
- Frances Cleveland
- Only First Lady married in the White House
- Dolley Madison
- Supposedly saved portrait of Washington from burning White House
- Hannah Van Buren
- Died in 1819, 18 years before husband's election
- Martha Jefferson
- Died 1782, 19 years before husband's election
- Anna Harrison
- Recipient of first pension for President's widow
- Mary Todd Lincoln
- Unpopular in the White House, committed to a mental hospital in later life
- Ellen H. Arthur
- Died of pneumonia in 1880, one year before husband's election
- Abigail Adams
- First to inhabit the White House
- Eliza McCardle Johnson
- Said to have taught her husband to read and figure
- Julia Dent Grant
- Slightly cross-eyed, served full eight years
- Rachel Jackson
- Did not legally divorce before marrying second husband
- Harriet Lane Johnston
- Not a First Lady at all
- Jane Appleton Pierce
- All three of her children died before adulthood, notably 11-year-old Benjamin
- Lucretia "Crete" Garfield
- Born in Ohio; contracted malaria while in office
- Julia Tyler
- The first second First Lady; 30 years husband's junior
- Sarah Polk
- Had no children; banned dancing and liquor
- Louisa Adams
- Only foreign-born First lady (born in London)
- Margaret Taylor
- Reclusive invalid who passed on hosting duties to her daughter
- Martha Washington
- First American woman on a stamp
- Leticia Tyler
- First president's wife to die in office
- Elizabeth Monroe
- Helped secure the release of Madame de Lafayette