Letitia Christian Tyler

Letitia Tyler
11th First Lady of the United States
In office April 4, 1841 – September 10, 1842
Preceded by	Jane Irwin Harrison
Succeeded by	Priscilla Cooper Tyler
Second Lady of the United States
In office March 4, 1841 – April 4, 1841
Preceded by	Floride Calhoun
Succeeded by	Sophia Dallas
Personal details
Born	(1790-11-12)November 12, 1790 Tidewater, Virginia, U.S.
Died	September 10, 1842(1842-09-10) (aged 51) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Spouse	John Tyler

Letitia Christian Tyler (November 12, 1790 – September 10, 1842), first wife of John Tyler, was First Lady of the United States from 1841 until her death.

Children

John and Letitia Tyler had four daughters and three sons live to maturity:

• Mary Tyler-Jones (1815-1848) - In 1835 she married Henry Lightfoot Jones, a prosperous Tidewater planter.
• Robert Tyler (1816-1877) - lawyer, public official. Having served as his father's private secretary in the White House, he settled in Philadelphia, where he practiced law and served as sheriff's solicitor. He also was chief clerk of the state supreme court. He married Priscilla Cooper Tyler, an actress, who served as official hostess at the White House during the first three years of the Tyler administration. As a leader of the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania, Robert Tyler promoted the career of James Buchanan. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he fled Philadelphia when an antisouthern mob attacked his home. He returned to Virginia, where he served as register of the Treasury of the Confederacy. Penniless after the war, he settled in Montgomery, Alabama, and there regained his fortunes as a lawyer, editor of the Montgomery Advertiser, and leader of the state Democratic Party.
• John Tyler, III (1819-1896) - lawyer, public official. Like his older brother, he also became a lawyer, served as private secretary to his father and campaigned for James Buchanan. During the Civil War, he served as assistant secretary of war of the Confederacy. After the war, he settled in Baltimore, where he practiced law. Under the Grant administration, he was appointed to a minor position in the IRS in Tallahassee, FL.
• Letitia Tyler-Semple (1821-1907) - educator. In 1839, she married James Semple, whom her father appointed a purser in the U.S. Navy. The marriage was an unhappy one. At the close of the Civil War, she left her husband to open a school, the Eclectic Institute, in Baltimore.
• Elizabeth Tyler-Waller (1823-1850) - At a White House wedding in 1842, she married William N. Waller. She died from the effects of childbirth at age 27.
• Alice Tyler-Denison (1827-1854) - In 1850 she married the Reverend Henry M. Denison, an Episcopal rector in Williamsburg. She died suddenly of colic at age 27.
• Tazewell Tyler (1830-1874) - doctor. During the Civil War, he served as a surgeon in the Confederate army. After the war, he moved to California.

Death and Legacy

The first President's wife to die in the White House, Letitia Tyler died peacefully in the evening of September 10, 1842. She was taken to Virginia for burial at the plantation of her birth. At the time of her death, she was 51 years old, making her the youngest First Lady to die.

Her daughter-in-law Priscilla Cooper Tyler remembered her as being "the most entirely unselfish person you can imagine...Notwithstanding her very delicate health, mother attends to and regulates all the household affairs and all so quietly that you can't tell when she does it."

Tyler appears on a 28p (£0.28) commemorative postage stamp from the Isle of Man Post Office, issued May 23, 2006, as part of a series honoring Manx-Americans.[1]

References

• Original text based on White House biography