EMILY TENNESSEE DONELSON
 niece of Andrew Jackson 1829-1836

Emily was twenty-one when she took over the duties of First Lady and skillfully handled the duties of entertaining.

RACHEL DONELSON JACKSON
wife of Andrew Jackson (not a First Lady)

Rachel, who smoked a pipe, died after Andrew Jackson was elected President but before he was inaugurated.

Wearing the white dress she had purchased for her husband's inaugural ceremonies in March 1829, Rachel was buried in the garden at the Hermitage, her home near Nashville, on Christmas Eve in 1828. Lines from her epitaph read: "A being so gentle and so virtuous slander might wound, but could not dishonor." This reflected her husband's bitterness at campaign slurs that seemed to precipitate her death.

 She had first married Lewis Robards. Two years after she married Andrew Jackson, they learned to their dismay that Robards had not obtained a divorce. Robards brought suit on grounds of adultery. After the divorce was granted, they quietly remarried. They had made an honest mistake, but whispers of adultery and bigamy followed Rachel as Jackson's career advanced.

They never had any children, but in 1809, they adopted a nephew and named him Andrew Jackson, Jr. They also reared other nephews: one, Andrew Jackson Donelson, eventually married his cousin Emily, one of Rachel's favorite nieces.

 When Jackson was elected President, he planned to have young Donelson for a private secretary with Emily as company for Rachel. After losing his beloved wife, he asked Emily to serve as his hostess.

description by Doris Karren Burton   << previous first lady  |  next first lady >>