As the eldest daughter of Captain Joel and Elizabeth Childress
she was use to a life of silks and satin growing up on a plantation near Murfreesboro,
Tennessee. She also was one the few women of the 19th century to be
afforded an education of higher learning and it made her especially fitted to
assist a man with a political career.
James K. Polk was laying the foundation for that career when
he met her. He had begun his first years’ service in the Tennessee legislature
when they were married on New Year’s Day, 1824; he was 28, she 20.
At a time when motherhood gave a woman her only acknowledged
career, Sarah Polk had to resign herself to childlessness, but she accompanied
her husband to Washington whenever she could, and they soon won a place in its
most select social circles. Privately she helped him with his speeches, copying
his correspondence and giving him advice. Not surprisingly when he returned to
Washington as President in 1845, she stepped to her high position with ease and
evident pleasure. She appeared at the inaugural ball, but as a devout
Presbyterian, she did not dance.
Only three months after retirement in 1849 to their fine new home “Polk
Place” in Nashville, he died, worn out by the years of public service. Clad
always in black, Sarah Polk lived on in the home for 42 years, guarding the memory
of her husband and accepting honors paid to her as honors due to him. The house
because a place of pilgrimage. She lived to be 88 years old and is buried next
to her husband.
5 comments:
She was amazing.....thank you for sharing this!
I never knew anything about President and Mrs. Polk. She was a unique and strong woman.
They are not a presidential couple we hear much about. This was interesting. If my math is right, they were only married for 25 years before he died.
I love the stories of the first ladies and as it's Woman's history month, it's good to remember them.
88 years old, quite old for the times. polk place is beautiful!!
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