Priscilla Cooper Tyler
(1816-1889)
BIRTH
June 14, 1816
PLACE
New York, New York, USA
NAME
Priscilla Cooper
DEATH
December 29, 1889
PLACE
Montgomery, Alabama, USA
FAMILY
HOMES
RELIGIOUS VIEWS
RELIGION NOT DOCUMENTED
DENOMINATION NOT DOCUMENTED
MEMBERSHIPS
AWARDS
Priscilla Cooper Tyler (1816–1889) was an actress who became the daughter-in-law of President John Tyler. Her stage experience helped her manage White House receptions and dinners as hostess from 1841 to 1844, first during Letitia Tyler’s illness and then after her death. Married to Robert Tyler, she later lived in Philadelphia and Montgomery, Alabama. Her role illustrates how presidential households relied on women beyond the president’s wife to conduct social affairs.
EARLY LIFE
Priscilla Cooper was born on June 14, 1816, in New York City, the daughter of Thomas Abthorpe Cooper, an English-born actor. She trained for the stage and acted in Richmond and other cities before marrying Robert Tyler, the son of John Tyler, on September 12, 1839.
When John Tyler became president in 1841, Priscilla Cooper Tyler moved into the White House as his hostess, since Letitia Tyler had been paralyzed by a stroke. She presided at receptions and wrote letters that described life in the mansion.
Letitia Tyler died on September 10, 1842. The family later moved with Robert Tyler to Philadelphia and Richmond, and after the Civil War to Montgomery, Alabama, where Priscilla Cooper Tyler died on December 29, 1889.
CAREER
DEATH
Priscilla Cooper Tyler was an actress who became the daughter-in-law of President John Tyler. Priscilla Cooper Tyler's stage experience helped her manage White House receptions and dinners as hostess from 1841 to 1844, first during Letitia Tyler’s illness and then after her death. When John Tyler became president in 1841, Priscilla Cooper Tyler moved into the White House as his hostess, since Letitia Tyler had been paralyzed by a stroke. She presided at receptions and wrote letters that described life in the mansion. Letitia Tyler died on September 10, 1842. The family later moved with Robert Tyler to Philadelphia and Richmond, and after the Civil War to Montgomery, Alabama, where Priscilla Cooper Tyler died on December 29, 1889. The available biographical account does not describe a continuous final medical course. It gives no dependable sequence of treatment and last symptoms from which to reconstruct a more detailed bedside narrative.
POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
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