Letitia Tyler
| Letitia Tyler | |
|---|---|
Tyler's White House Portrait (1842)
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| First Lady of the United States | |
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In role April 4, 1841 – September 10, 1842 |
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| President | John Tyler |
| Preceded by |
Anna Harrison Jane Harrison (Acting) |
| Succeeded by | Priscilla Tyler (Acting) |
| Second Lady of the United States | |
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In role March 4, 1841 – April 4, 1841 |
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| President | William Henry Harrison |
| Preceded by | Floride Calhoun (1832) |
| Succeeded by | Sophia Dallas (1845) |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Letitia Christian November 12, 1790 Cedar Grove, Virginia, US |
| Died | September 10, 1842 (aged 51) Washington, D.C., US |
| Spouse(s) | John Tyler (1813–1842) |
 America's First Ladies, Anna Harrison, Letitia Tyler & Julia Tyler, 2013, C-SPAN
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Letitia Christian Tyler (November 12, 1790 – September 10, 1842), first wife of John Tyler, was First Lady of the United States from 1841 until her death.
Born at the Cedar Grove plantation in New Kent County, Virginia, Letitia Christian was the daughter of Colonel Robert Christian, a prosperous planter, and Mary Brown-Christian. Letitia was shy, quiet, pious, and by all accounts, selfless and devoted to her family.
She met John Tyler, then a law student, in 1808. Their five-year courtship was restrained and it was three weeks before the wedding that Tyler first kissed her — on the hand. In his only surviving love letter to her, written a few months before their wedding, Tyler promised, "Whether I float or sink in the stream of fortune, you may be assured of this, that I shall never cease to love you."
They married on Tyler's 23rd birthday at Cedar Grove, her family's home. Their 29-year marriage appears to have been a happy one. Letitia Tyler avoided the limelight during her husband's political rise, preferring domestic responsibilities to those of a public wife. During his congressional service, she remained in Virginia except for one visit to Washington during the winter of 1828-1829. In 1839, she suffered a paralytic stroke that left her an invalid. As first lady, she remained in the upstairs living quarters of the White House; she came down once, to attend the wedding of her daughter (Elizabeth) in January 1842.
John and Letitia Tyler had four daughters and three sons live to maturity:
The first first lady to die in the White House, Letitia Tyler died peacefully, aged 51, in the evening of September 10, 1842 from a stroke. She was taken to Virginia for burial at the plantation of her birth. Tyler, Caroline Harrison (1892) and Ellen Wilson (1914) are the only first ladies to have died in the White House.
Her daughter-in-law Priscilla Cooper Tyler remembered her as "the most entirely unselfish person you can imagine. Notwithstanding her very delicate health, mother attends to and regulates all the household affairs and all so quietly that you can't tell when she does it."
Tyler appears on a 28p (£0.28) commemorative postage stamp from the Isle of Man Post Office, issued May 23, 2006, as part of a series honoring Manx-Americans. She also appears on a one-half ounce gold coin issued by the United States Mint on July 2, 2009.
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Wikipedia