Born: 1803
Died: 1891
Sarah Childress Polk was a First Lady in the tradition of Abigail Adams -- confident, outspoken, and politically involved. Her parents were wealthy Tennessee Presbyterians who sent Sarah to the best girls' school in the South. At 20, Sarah married 28-year-old James Polk, a Tennessee legislator and Andrew Jackson protege who had prospered in real estate. The two had no children but shared a love of politics, participating jointly in James' career and in the management of his distant cotton plantations.
During Polk's 14 years in Congress, Sarah developed friendships with influential politicians. Behind the scenes, she gave her husband advice, reviewed his speeches, copied his correspondence, and highlighted newspaper articles for him to read. She continued this practice as First Lady. A believer in America's God-given "destiny" to expand across the continent, Sarah shunned dancing, drinking, and card-playing on religious grounds. Even so, she enjoyed entertaining -- albeit sedately -- at the White House, but worried constantly about James' frail health. Widowed just three months after James left office, Sarah lived on for another 42 years in the couple's Nashville home and devoted herself to preserving her husband's memory.
Eleventh President
James Knox Polk
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