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Title: Mary Todd Lincoln

Description: Mary Todd Lincoln (Mary Anne Todd; December 13, 1818-July 16, 1882), wife of Abraham Lincoln (February 25, 1809-April 15, 1865); sixteenth President of the U.S. (1861-1865) and First Lady of the U.S. (1861-1865); mother of four sons: Robert Todd Lincoln (August 1, 1843-July 26, 1926); Edward "Eddie" Baker Lincoln (March 10, 1846-February 1, 1850); William "Willie" Wallace Lincoln (December 21, 1850-February 20, 1862); and Thomas "Tad" Lincoln (April 4, 1853-July 16, 1871); she mourned excessively over the death of "Willie" and consulted spiritual mediums in order to contact him from beyond the grave; Mary Todd was born to a slave-holding family in Kentucky and moved to Springfield, Illinois in 1839, first courted by rising politician Stephen A. Douglas (April 23, 1813-June 3, 1861), but she was attracted to a struggling attorney, Abraham Lincoln, meeting him on December 16, 1839. Upon learning that her name was spelled with two "d"s, Lincoln reportedly stated: "Why? One was enough for God;" after a prolonged engagement (they broke up once), the couple married on November 4, 1842; the relationship between Mary and Abraham Lincoln was troubled by the early deaths of Edward, Thomas and William Lincoln (only Robert Todd Lincoln lived to maturity), as well as her husband's long absences from home as a circuit attorney and when campaigning for office; in the 1940 film, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, from the play by Robert E. Sherwood (April 4, 1896-November 14, 1955), Mary Lincoln is portrayed as a shrewish, interfering wife, which was not really the case; temperamental and sometimes irrational, she was not a popular First Lady when Lincoln became President of the U.S., and his 1865 assassination left her with permanent trauma; because of her eccentric behavior, her son Robert had her confined for three months at a mental institution in Batavia, Illinois, in 1875; afterward, she lived with her sister, Elizabeth Edwards, in Springfield, Illinois, until her death in 1882; she is buried next to her husband in the Lincoln Tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield;

Category: Political Figures

Topic: U.S. Presidents

Subject: Abraham Lincoln

Keywords: Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940 film), Abraham Lincoln, American Civil War (1861-1865), assassinations, films, first ladies of the U.S., motion pictures, movies, Illinois, playwrights, politicians, presidents of the U.S., Springfield, Illinois, stage plays, U.S. Congressmen, U.S. Presidents.