Varina Howell Davis was the wife of Jefferson Davis and first lady of the Confederate States of America, and in later life she became a writer and journalist in New York City. She was active socially until poor health in her final years forced her retirement from work and any sort of public life. In 1861, when he became president of the Confederacy, she became its first lady, living in Richmond until the city's fall in 1865. She was with Jefferson Davis when he was captured in Georgia in May 1865 and campaigned for his release from prison. Varina Davis was active socially until poor health in her final years forced her retirement from work and any sort of public life. Davis died at age 80 of double pneumonia in her room at the Hotel Majestic on October 16, 1906. She was survived by her daughter Margaret Davis Hayes and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 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.