Jane Hadley Barkley

Jane Hadley Barkley (left) at an award ceremony for her husband's albums (2nd from left) by President Harry S. Truman in the Oval Office ; right: Nellie Tayloe Ross (1950).

Elizabeth Jane Rucker Hadley Barkley (born September 23, 1911 in Keytesville , Chariton County , Missouri , † September 6, 1964 in Washington, DC ) was a second lady of the United States. She was the second wife of Vice President Alben W. Barkley . She was known as Jane Hadley Barkley .

Early life

Jane Rucker's father was a lawyer, the mother a pianist who had studied in Europe. She married her first husband, attorney Carleton Hadley, in 1931. She had met him at Washington University in St. Louis . He became a prominent lawyer with the railroad. They had two daughters together. Carleton Hadley died in 1944 at the age of 42.

Marries Vice President Barkley

Jane Hadley married Vice President Barkley, also a widower, on November 18, 1949. She was his second wife. At the time of the marriage, Barkley was 34 years her senior. He was 71 and she was 37. Barkley's first wife, Dorothy, had died in 1947. Until her courtship for Barkley, Hadley was a Republican . In 1940 she worked in the office of Republican presidential candidate Wendell Willkie in St. Louis . When her milkman expressed his preference for President Franklin D. Roosevelt , she left a note: "No Willkie, no milkie".

After meeting the young widow at a party in Washington in May 1949, the Vice President wooed her ardently. He was not deterred by her political attitudes or the distance from her home in St. Louis. The vice president began making frequent air stops in St. Louis. Its advertising attracted national attention. She lived in a seven-bedroom apartment in the prestigious Central West End of St. Louis, near both Washington University and Forest Park. She also owned an estate in St. Charles County near St. Louis.

On October 31, 1949, they announced their engagement. They were married three weeks later, on November 18, in St. Louis. There were so many well-wishers that the bride and groom had trouble getting through the streets with the vintage convertible that they had given them. When asked about his wife's politics, the Vice President said: "She got swept off her feet by Willkie, but now she's back in the fold."

Her husband left the office of Vice President in 1953. He was elected to the US Senate for a further term in 1954 , which he served until his death in 1956.

death

After Barkley's death, $ 343,444 in income tax was collected on his property. This payment was due following an investigation by the IRS that found that Barkley had not paid his taxes for several years. Widowed again, Jane Barkley accepted a position as secretary at George Washington University . In 1958 she published a memorandum with Vanguard Publishers in New York entitled "I Married the Veep". At the time of her death from a heart attack in 1964, she was still employed at Washington DC University.

Web links

Commons : Jane Hadley Barkley - collection of images, videos and audio files

personal data
SURNAME	Barkley, Jane Hadley
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Barkley, Elizabeth Jane Rucker Hadley
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American second lady
DATE OF BIRTH	September 23, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH	Keytesville , Missouri
DATE OF DEATH	September 6, 1964
Place of death	Washington, DC