Skip Trombetti, Van’s Photos, Mentor, OH

Marian King as

First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln

(1818-1882)

Become acquainted with the real Mary Todd …

Perhaps no First Lady is more misunderstood than Mary Todd Lincoln.  Her life was tragic from beginning to end - filled with loss, public criticism, and hatred.  Outspoken and emphatic in her views, Mary Lincoln was politically active during a time when this was unacceptable behavior for a woman.

Mary Todd was born to a prominent family in Lexington, Kentucky on December 13, 1818.  When she was six, her mother died.  Her father remarried a younger woman and Mary had a difficult relationship with her stepmother.  From her father's two marriages, she had a total of 14 siblings.

 Highly educated, capricious, and politically savvy, she was never boring.  Mary was courted by several gentlemen, but wed Abraham Lincoln (nine years older) on November 4, 1842 at her sister Elizabeth’s house in Springfield, IL.  They had four sons, Robert Todd, Edward Baker, William Wallace (Willie), and Thomas (Tad) – three of which died before Mary.

Mary lost favor with the American public during her husband’s presidency because of her Southern roots and her over-spending on Executive Mansion redecorating.  The pressures of Civil War, slanderous newspaper articles, and losing two children while in the White House strained her marriage and mental stability.  After witnessing her husband's assassination in 1865, Mary was understandably a broken woman.  (From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Todd_Lincoln & http://www.firstladies.org/curriculum/educational-biography.aspx?biography=17.  More information at http://www.nps.gov/liho/historyculture/marylincoln.htm.)

For information about bringing Abraham Lincoln and/or Mary Todd Lincoln to life for your group, please contact:

Marian King at:

  marylincoln1818@gmail.com