Martha Washington
Abigail Adams
Martha Jefferson
Dolley Madison
Elizabeth Monroe
Louisa Adams
Rachel Jackson
Hannah Van Buren
Anna Harrison
Letitia Tyler
Julia Tyler
Sarah Polk
Margaret Taylor
Abigail Fillmore
Jane Pierce
Harriet Lane Johnson
Mary Lincoln
Eliza Johnson
Julia Grant
Lucy Hayes
Lucretia Garfield
Ellen Arthur
Frances Cleveland
Caroline Harrison
Ida McKinley
Edith Roosevelt
Helen Taft
Ellen Wilson
Edith Wilson
Florence Harding
Grace Coolidge
Lou Hoover
Eleanor Roosevelt
Bess Truman
Mamie Eisenhower
Jacqueline Kennedy
Lady Bird Johnson
Pat Nixon
Betty Ford
Rosalynn Carter
Nancy Reagan
Barbara Bush
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Laura Bush
Michelle Obama
Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson
Rachel was orn June 15, 1767
She never got a chance to serve as First Lady. She died of a heart attack 5 days after Jackson was elected President.
Her family moved to Tennessee when she was 12. Tennessee was considered the frontier at that time.
At seventeen she married Lewis Robards. Her husband was jealous and had a bad temper. He sent Rachel to live with her mother.
While living with her mother she fell in love with Andrew Jackson. Her husband returned and the two men had heated arguments. Rachel returned to Kentucky with her husband.
Library of Congress
In 1793, her husband divorced her.
However, Rachel and Andrew thought the divorce had been done earlier, and were married in 1791. When they learned about the official divorce in 1793, they were married a second time in 1794.
They lived at Hermitage, which was Jackson's plantation.
Rachel Jackson died on December 22, 1828 in Nashville, Tenn. She was 61..
Over 10,000 people attended her funeral.
Sources of Information:
Books:
Barden, Cindy,Meet the First Ladies
Gormley, Beatrice,First Ladies: Women Who Called The White House Home (First Ladies)
Smith, Carter, Editor,Smithsonian Presidents and First Ladies
Web Sites:
The White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/
Portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/odmdhtml/