Lucretia Garfield
Lucretia Rudolph Garfield (born April 19, 1832 in Hiram , Ohio , † March 14, 1918 in Pasadena , California ) was the wife of US President James A. Garfield and in 1881 the First Lady of the United States.
Life
Her father was Zeb Rudolph. Lucretia met her future husband when they were both still in school. The two married on November 11, 1858.
In 1863 their first daughter died at the age of three, and another five sons and a daughter were born until 1874. With the exception of the last son, who died in 1876 at the age of two, all of their mother survived.
In May 1881 she fell ill with malaria and took a cure in the seaside resort of Elberon (New Jersey) . Meanwhile, she heard about the murder of her husband and returned to Washington by train. The train was involved in a disaster, but Lucretia was not injured. About three months later, the president died as a result of the gunshot wounds.
After his death, she lived in Ohio for 36 years.
Trivia
Johnny Cash describes in his ballad “Mr. Garfield ”(in the album Sings the Ballads of the True West ) a partly fictional dialogue between Lucretia and her dying husband.
literature
- Benjamin T. Arrington: Lucy Webb Hayes, Lucretia Rudolph Garfield, and Mary Arthur McElroy. In Katherine AS Sibley (Ed.): A Companion to First Ladies. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester 2016, ISBN 978-1-118-73222-9 , pp. 247-264.
- John Shaw: Crete and James: Personal Letters of Lucretia and James Garfield , East Lansing 1994, Michigan State University Press
Web links
- Biography on the White House website (archived)
- Lucretia Garfield in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Garfield, Lucretia |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rudolph, Lucretia (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Wife of US President James A. Garfield and First Lady of the United States in 1881 |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 19, 1832 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hiram , Ohio |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 14, 1918 |
| Place of death | Pasadena , California |