Sarah Childress Polk
(1803-1891)
BIRTH
September 4, 1803
PLACE
Murfreesboro, Tennessee, USA
NAME
Sarah Childress
DEATH
August 14, 1891
PLACE
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
FAMILY
HUSBAND
James K. Polk
(1795-1849)
HOMES
NICKNAMES
Sahara Sarah; the Spanish Madonna; the Prim Madonna
RELIGIOUS VIEWS
CHRISTIAN
PRESBYTERIAN
MEMBERSHIPS
AWARDS
Sarah Childress Polk was First Lady of the U.S. from 1845 to 1849 and served as her husband James K. Polk's political confidant, then spent 42 years as the keeper of his memory at Polk Place in Nashville. She married the rising Tennessee lawyer and legislator James K. Polk on January 1, 1824. After Polk won the presidency in 1844, she became First Lady in March 1845. She stayed there through the Civil War and received visitors from both sides.
EARLY LIFE
Sarah Childress was born on September 4, 1803, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the daughter of Joel Childress, a prosperous merchant and planter, and Elizabeth Whitsitt Childress. Unusually for a Tennessee girl of her time, she received a formal education, including study at the Moravian Female Academy in Salem, North Carolina. She married the rising Tennessee lawyer and legislator James K. Polk on January 1, 1824.
As the wife of a state legislator and then a U.S. congressman, Sarah Polk acted as her husband's secretary, reading newspapers, answering correspondence, and advising on political matters. The couple had no children, and she traveled with him through his years in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he rose to Speaker.
After Polk won the presidency in 1844, she became First Lady in March 1845. A devout Presbyterian, she did not allow dancing at White House events, and the Polks did not hold entertainments on Sundays. She continued to assist him with correspondence and speeches, and the family held enslaved people on the Polk plantation in Mississippi.
Polk died in June 1849, only months after leaving office, and she lived on as a widow at Polk Place in Nashville for more than four decades. She stayed there through the Civil War and received visitors from both sides. She died in Nashville on August 14, 1891.
CAREER
DEATH
Sarah Polk lived at Polk Place for 42 years, the longest widowhood of any US first lady, and the longest retirement until Frances Cleveland exceeded her in 1939, and Rosalynn Carter (briefly) in 2023. As the wife of a state legislator and then a U.S. congressman, Sarah Polk acted as her husband's secretary, reading newspapers, answering correspondence, and advising on political matters. The couple had no children, and she traveled with him through his years in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he rose to Speaker. After Polk won the presidency in 1844, she became First Lady in March 1845. A devout Presbyterian, she did not allow dancing at White House events, and the Polks did not hold entertainments on Sundays. She continued to assist him with correspondence and speeches, and the family held enslaved people on the Polk plantation in Mississippi. Polk died in June 1849, only months after leaving office, and she lived on as a widow at Polk Place in Nashville for more than four decades. She stayed there through the Civil War and received visitors from both sides. She died in Nashville on August 14, 1891.
POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
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