Varina Jefferson Davis

Born:  May 7, 1826, Natchez, Mississippi

Died:  October 16, 1906, New York City, New York

Resting Place:  Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia

Brief History:  Born in the Confederate White House and named for her mother, Varina Anne was the youngest of the Davis children. She was known for most of her life as "Winnie," a nickname her father had first bestowed on her mother. She received her early education from her mother during the family's postwar travels, and subsequently was enrolled in boarding schools in Karlsruhe, Germany, and in Paris. Throughout her life, Varina Howell Davis endured a number of hardships. Her father went bankrupt during her teenage years growing up in Mississippi. Two of her sons died as children, and her two other sons died from disease in the 1870s. In keeping with custom, Jefferson Davis sought the permission of Howell's parents before beginning a formal courtship.

When they married on February 26, 1845, at her parents' house, a few relatives and friends of the bride attended, and none of the groom's family. Jefferson Davis was elected in 1846 to the U.S. House of Representatives and Varina accompanied him to Washington, D.C. Jefferson Davis resigned from the U.S. Senate in 1861 when Mississippi seceded. In the summer of 1861, Davis and her husband moved to Richmond, Virginia, the new capital of the Confederacy. When the war ended, the Davises fled South seeking to escape to Europe. They were captured by federal troops and Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe in Phoebus, Virginia, for two years. After her husband died, Varina Howell Davis completed his autobiography, publishing it in 1890 as Jefferson Davis, A Memoir.