Mary+Todd+Lincoln

Mary Todd Lincoln was the wife of the sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln. She was born in Lexington, Kentucky on December 13, 1818. Her family was a prominent one. Her mother passed away when she was six and her father remarried a year later. She loved school and excelled in French, which was considered the language of cultured people of the time.

Mary met and married Abraham Lincoln and together the two had four children. She was completely devoted to her family. Of course, Mary went to Washington went her husband became president.

Opposing the practice of slavery, Mary certainly supported her husband's pro-Union stance. She spent much of her time taking food, flowers and other items to the hospitals who were helping the war wounded. She read to the soldiers, wrote letters for them and raised money to help support them.

A few short days after General Lee surrendered to General Grant, Abraham was killed while attending a play at Ford's Theater. Mary would never recover from this terribly sad event. She spent several years in poor physical and mental states. She passed away, at the age of sixty-three, in 1882. Mary and Abraham are buried next to each other in Springfield, Illinois. Mary was buried with the lovely ring that Abraham gave her forty years earlier, thinner from wear, but still bearing the inscription, "Love is Eternal."



Image from Thinkquest.org: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/02455/pictures/Mary%2520Todd%2520Lincoln.jpg&imgrefurl=http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/02455/Civil%2520War/mary%2520todd.html&usg=__YgkbQGBmE-rdfdP61rbc53mMMd0=&h=500&w=371&sz=103&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=vXVA2cl6q8SeEM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=96&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmary%2Btodd%2Blincoln%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4DMUS_enUS219US230%26sa%3DX

Interested in learning more about Mary? Check out these sites: http://home.att.net/~rjnorton/Lincoln76.html http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/ml16.html