Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson; 1829-1837

Born: 1767
Died: 1828

Andrew Jackson met Rachel Donelson in the frontier town of Nashville, Tennessee, when he was a 23-year-old prosecutor living at her mother's boarding house. Rachel, a spirited 23-year-old was back home from Kentucky awaiting a divorce from her jealous and abusive husband of five years, Lewis Robards. Rachel and Andrew fell in love and wed in 1791, only to learn afterward that Robards hadn't divorced Rachel. Robards then did so, claiming adultery, and Rachel and Andrew rewed in 1794. But the Robards matter followed them, used later by Andrew's political enemies who called Rachel a bigamist and adulteress. The attacks always enraged Andrew who took a bullet in the shoulder defending Rachel's honor.

A devoted couple for 37 years, the Jackson's lived at the Hermitage, their pioneer farm outside Nashville. Though they were childless, their house was full of the many people "Aunt Rachel" took in. She was devout, charitable, and overweight -- a good country woman who smoked a pipe. Ridiculed by Andrew's opponents in his 1824 and 1828 Presidential campaigns, Rachel dreaded moving to Washington when he finally won. As fate would have it, she didn't have to. Just months before the inauguration, she died of a heart attack and was buried in her intended inaugural gown. Two of her nieces served as Andrew's White House hostesses. He missed Rachel till the day he died.

Seventh President
Andrew Jackson