Letitia was an american first lady and the wife of the President of the United States, John Tyler. She was accustomed to planning and managing events, having overseen many of the operations of the Tyler plantation and raised seven children while her husband held various elected positions. Despite her illness, she presided over her responsibilities as first lady from her second-story bedroom in the presidential mansion.
Background
Letitia Christian was born on November 12, 1790, on a plantation near Tidewater, Virginia, and she was raised to learn domestic responsibilities, from family care to plantation management. Her father was a wealthy merchant involved in Virginia politics.
Career
Letitia Tyler wasn’t able to share in her husband’s return to the national political scene. In 1839, she suffered a paralytic stroke that left her an invalid. Following the victory of Harrison and Tyler, her husband remained with her at the plantation. Since vice presidents traditionally had little say in presidential administrations, he decided that he could easily hold the position at home. However, Harrison died of pneumonia just thirty-one days after he was inaugurated. Tyler had himself sworn in as president and assumed full responsibilities, and his family soon followed him to Washington.
Letitia Tyler wasn’t able to perform in a public role as first lady. That responsibility fell to her daughters and, especially, her daughter-in-law, Priscilla Cooper Tyler, who had married the Tylers’ son Robert in 1839.
Priscilla and Letitia helped arrange the White House wedding of the Tyler’s daughter Elizabeth, herself a spirited hostess, to William N. Waller on January 1842. Letitia made her only public appearance at executive mansion wedding, greeting guests and enjoying the festivities from her seat.
The first first lady to die in the White House, Letitia Tyler died peacefully, aged 51, in the evening of September 10, 1842 from a stroke. She was taken to Virginia for burial at the plantation of her birth. Tyler, Caroline Harrison (1892) and Ellen Wilson (1914) are the only first ladies to have died in the White House.
Achievements
Personality
Letitia was shy, quiet, pious, and by all accounts, selfless and devoted to her family.
Quotes from others about the person
Her daughter-in-law Priscilla Cooper Tyler remembered her as "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."
Connections
Letitia met Tyler, when John first came to Richmond, and started to become acquainted withpowerful men, including the well-known and respected American statesman Edmund Jennings Randolph, and Letitia’s father, Robert Christian. Tyler became acquainted with Letitia through these aristocratic leaders, and they became engaged. Their five-year courtship was restrained and it was three weeks before the wedding that Tyler first kissed her - on the hand.
They married on Tyler's 23rd birthday at Cedar Grove, her family's home. Their 29-year marriage appears to have been a happy one.Together, John and Letitia Tyler had four daughters and three sons live to maturity.