Mary Todd Lincoln

Born:  December 13, 1818, Lexington, Kentucky

Died:  July 16, 1882, Springfield, Illinois

Resting Place:  Oak Ridge Cemetery, The Lincoln Tomb, Springfield, Illinois

Brief History:  Todd was born in Lexington, Kentucky, as the fourth of seven children of Robert Smith Todd, a banker, and Elizabeth "Eliza" (Parker) Todd. When she was six, her mother died in childbirth. Mary Todd was born into a large and wealthy slave-owning family in Kentucky, although Mary never owned slaves and in her adulthood came to oppose slavery. While Lincoln pursued his increasingly successful career as a Springfield lawyer, Mary supervised their growing household. She acted as the White House social coordinator, throwing lavish balls and redecorating the White House at great expense; her spending was the source of much consternation. She was seated next to Abraham when he was assassinated in the President's Box at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., 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. The White House years were difficult for Mary Lincoln. The pressures and anxieties of the Civil War were unrelenting. Mary watched her husband age under the strain. In early 1862, when their eleven-year-old son Willie died from typhoid fever, Mary was grief-stricken. He was the second of three Lincoln children who would die before adulthood.

Mary Lincoln settled in Chicago where she found herself in a difficult financial situation, struggling to pay debts and fighting for a widow’s pension. In 1867, she went to New York with Keckly where she attempted to sell her dresses, resulting in public ridicule and scrutiny. Her husband’s assassination in 1865 shattered Mary Todd Lincoln. After her husband's death, she received messages of condolence from all over the world, many of which she attempted to answer personally. Due to her erratic behavior, Robert initiated proceedings to have her institutionalized.[23] On May 20, 1875, following a trial, a jury committed her to a private asylum in Batavia, Illinois. Mary Lincoln was released into the custody of her sister in Springfield. Mrs. Lincoln spent the next four years traveling throughout Europe and took up residence in Pau, France. On July 15, 1882, exactly eleven years after her youngest son died, she collapsed at her sister's home, lapsed into a coma, and died the next morning of a stroke at age 63.