Rachel Jackson*

*Rachel Jackson never served as First Lady in the White House. She died five days after Andrew Jackson was elected President.

Rachel Donelson was born June 15, 1767, in Halifax County, Virginia.
She never got a chance to serve as First Lady. She died of a heart attack 5 days after Andrew Jackson was elected President.

Her family moved to Tennessee when she was 12. Tennessee was considered the frontier at that time.

At seventeen she married Lewis Robards. Her husband was jealous and had a bad temper. He sent Rachel to live with her mother.

While living with her mother she fell in love with Andrew Jackson. Her husband returned and the two men had heated arguments. Rachel returned to Kentucky with her husband.

In 1793, her husband divorced her.

However, Rachel and Andrew thought the divorce had been done earlier, and were married in 1791. When they learned about the official divorce in 1793, they were married a second time in 1794.

They lived at Hermitage, which was Jackson's plantation.

Andrew and Rachel never had an children of their own. The did adopt one of Andrew's brothers child. They named him Andrew Jackson Jr.

Jackson had kept the scandal about the divorce from Rachael. When she was 61 she read the nasty accusations in a political pamphlet. She was devastated. She became ill and died soon after reading the pamphlet.

Rachel Jackson died on December 22, 1828 in Nashville, Tenn. She was 61.

Over 10,000 people attended her funeral.

Visit our site on U.S. Presidents

Books and Websites

Books

Smithsonian Presidents and First Ladiesby James Barber and Amy Pastan.
First Ladies: Women Who Called The White House Home (First Ladies) by Beatrice Gormeley.

Websites

http://www.firstladies.org/ National First Ladies Library
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/058_flal.htmlLibrary of Congress, Images of the First Ladies

Comments and/or corrections should be sent to Jim at jim@anewadventure.org.