| Birth: | Dec. 13, 1818
Lexington
Fayette County
Kentucky, USA | | Death: | Jul. 16, 1882
Springfield
Sangamon County
Illinois, USA | 
Presidential First Lady. She was born to pioneer settlers in Kentucky. When Mary Lincoln was seven, her mother died and her father remarried. She belonged to the aristocracy of Lexington with an excellent social life and a sound private education. Nearly 21, she went to Springfield, Illinois to live with her sister. Here she met Abraham Lincoln. Three years later, after a stormy courtship and a broken engagement, they were married. They were opposites in background and temperament. The marriage brought hard work, a family of boys and a husband that was away much of the time pursuing a political career. Finally Lincoln's single term in Congress gave Mary and the boys a winter in Washington. The Presidency followed and she through her position as first lady fulfilled her high social ambitions. Mrs. Lincoln's years in the White House mingled misery with triumph. An orgy of spending stirred resentment. While the Civil War dragged on, Southerners scorned her as a traitor to her birth, and citizens loyal to the Union suspected her of treason. Her entertaining brought accusal of unpatriotic extravagance. Willie's death and finally the assassination of her husband threw her into the depths of despair. The next 17 years held nothing but sorrow. With her son "Tad" she traveled abroad in search of health. After Tad died she slipped into a world of delusion. She became a misunderstood and a tragic figure. Mary returned to Springfield and began living in the home of her older sister, Elizabeth Edwards. A variety of physical ailments caused her health to decline. She had eye problems, spinal sclerosis and was diabetic. Mary lived in a darkened room with the shades always drawn. She collapsed in her room having suffered a stroke and died the next day in the same house where she was married 40 years before, wearing her wedding ring engraved with "Love Is Eternal" on the inside. Mary was laid out in her sister's house wearing a white silk dress. She was 63 years old. The funeral was delayed pending arrival of Robert who was then Secretary of War, in Washington. Mary's final rites were held at the First Presbyterian Church in Springfield with Rev. James Armstrong Reed presiding and Illinois Governor Shelby Cullom as one of the pallbearers. She was taken by procession to Oakridge Cemetery, where she joined her husband and three sons in the Lincoln Tomb.
Family links:
Parents:
Robert Smith Todd (1791 - 1849)
Eliza Ann Parker Todd (1794 - 1825)
Spouse:
Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)
Children:
Robert Todd Lincoln (1843 - 1926)*
Edward Baker Lincoln (1846 - 1850)*
William Wallace Lincoln (1850 - 1862)*
Thomas Lincoln (1853 - 1871)*
*Calculated relationship
Search Amazon for Mary Lincoln | | | Burial:
Oak Ridge Cemetery
Springfield
Sangamon County
Illinois, USA |
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Record added: Jan 01, 2001
Find A Grave Memorial# 1341 |
|
|
|
|
(4.5 after 418 votes)
