The youngest First Lady to marry, Eliza McCardle Johnson married Andrew Johnson when she was 16, he
The youngest First Lady to marry, Eliza McCardle Johnson married Andrew Johnson when she was 16, he 18, in 1827. Mrs. Johnson’s difficult labor of their fifth and final child doomed her to a life of poor health. She officially suffered from “consumption” which was then a general diagnosis for progressive bodily wasting. She also had acute alcoholism, which ran in her family and unsurprisingly hurt her health.She avoided Washington, D.C. during her husband’s Vice Presidency, but was forced to move into the White House when he became president. After stalling for four months, she eventually took up residence in the White House’s second floor and stayed there. She made only two public appearances during her husband’s four years in office. After the President was impeached in 1869, her health never improved and she lingered for seven years until she was 65, only to watch the suicide of another son because of alcoholism and the death of her husband because of a stroke. All in all, a sucky life filled with familial tragedies and personal illnesses. -- source link
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