Mary
Todd Lincoln
1818-1882
"Other than that, I rather enjoyed the play."
Mary Todd was born into a wealthy,
slave-owning family in Kentucky. In her late teens, she moved to Springfield,
the capital of Illinois, and lived with her married sister
Elizabeth, the wife of an Illinois congressman. Before she
married Abraham Lincoln in 1842, Mary was courted by many suitors, among them Lincoln's long-time political
opponent Stephen A. Douglas.
Mary Todd Lincoln served as the first lady of
the United
States from 1861. As the White House social coordinator, she threw
lavish balls and redecorated the White House at great expense. Her
spending was the source of much consternation. She was seated next to
Abraham Lincoln at Ford's
Theatre in Washington, when his head was suddenly blown apart by an assassin on April 14, 1865.
The
Lincolns had
four sons of whom only the eldest, Robert, survived both parents. The
deaths of her husband and three of her sons weighed heavily on her.
Young Thomas (Tad) who died suddenly in 1871, had just spent extended
time traveling with her, after Robert married. Mary Lincoln suffered
with mental health issues. She had frequent migraines,
which were exacerbated by a head injury in 1863. She was briefly locked
away in a nuthouse in 1875, but national opinion at the time divided
over whether she had an authentic mental illness, or was just an
inconvenient embarrassment to her family. After a bitter court battle,
the courts set her free. She then spent
several years traveling in Europe. She later retired to the home of her
sister in Springfield, where she died in 1882 at age 63.
Husband: Abraham Lincoln (m. 1842–1865)
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