List of First Ladies of the United States by longevity

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At 97 years, 247 days,
Bess Truman is the longest-lived First Lady.

At 51 years, 302 days,
Letitia Tyler, is the youngest woman to have served as First Lady to die.

Betty Ford is currently the oldest living First Lady at age 90.

Nancy Reagan is currently the second-oldest living First Lady at age 87.

This is a list of First Ladies of the United States by longevity. Where the person in question is still living, the longevity is calculated up to January 8, 2009.

1 List by longevity
2 Acting First Lady
3 Women who never became First Lady, but were married to a man who became or was a former President
4 Deaths of note
5 Longest deaths after husband
6 Longest out of the White House
7 Longest to be married
8 Notes

[edit] List by longevity

To allow for the differing number of leap days occurring within the life of each First Lady or wife, two measures of longevity are given. The first column is the number of days between date of birth and date of death, allowing for leap days; the second column breaks this number down into years and days, with the years being the number of whole years the First Lady or wife lived, and the days being the remaining number of days after her last birthday. The current oldest living first lady is Betty Ford. She will surpass Lady Bird Johnson if she is still alive on October 26, 2012 and Bess Truman if she is still alive on December 11, 2015.

	Name	Date of birth	Date of death	Longevity
	Name	Date of birth	Date of death	days	years/days
1	Bess Truman	February 13, 1885	October 18, 1982	35,675	97 years, 247 days
2	Lady Bird Johnson	December 22, 1912	July 11, 2007	34,534	94 years, 201 days
3	Betty Ford	April 8, 1918		33,148	&0000000000000090.00000090 years, &0000000000000275.000000275 days
4	Edith Bolling Wilson^[1]	October 15, 1872	December 28, 1961	32,580	89y 74 days
5	Anna Harrison	July 25, 1775	February 25, 1864	32,356	88 years, 215 days
6	Sarah Childress Polk	September 4, 1803	August 14, 1891	32,121	87 years, 344 days
7	Nancy Reagan	July 6, 1921		31,963	&0000000000000087.00000087 years, &0000000000000186.000000186 days
8	Edith Roosevelt	August 6, 1861	September 30, 1948	31,831	87 years, 55 days
9	Lucretia Garfield	April 19, 1832	March 14, 1918	31,374	85 years, 329 days
10	Barbara Bush	June 8, 1925		30,530	&0000000000000083.00000083 years, &0000000000000214.000000214 days
11	Frances Cleveland^[1]	July 21, 1864	October 29, 1947	30,414	83 years, 100 days
12	Mamie Eisenhower	November 14, 1896	November 1, 1979	30,301	82 years, 352 days
13	Helen Taft	June 2, 1861	May 22, 1943	29,938	81 years, 354 days
14	Rosalynn Carter	August 18, 1927		29,729	&0000000000000081.00000081 years, &0000000000000143.000000143 days
15	Pat Nixon	March 16, 1912	June 22, 1993	29,683	81 years, 98 days
16	Dolley Madison	May 20, 1768	July 12, 1849	29,637	81 years, 53 days
17	Grace Coolidge	January 3, 1879	July 8, 1957	28,675	78 years, 186 days
18	Eleanor Roosevelt	October 11, 1884	November 7, 1962	28,515	78 years, 27 days
19	Louisa Adams	February 12, 1775	May 15, 1852	28,216	77 years, 93 days
20	Julia Grant	January 26, 1826	December 14, 1902	28,080	76 years, 322 days
21	Abigail Adams	November 11, 1744	October 28, 1818	27,002	73 years, 340 days
22	Martha Washington	June 21, 1731	May 22, 1802	25,891	70 years, 324 days
23	Lou Henry Hoover	March 29, 1874	January 7, 1944	25,485	69 years, 284 days
24	Julia Gardiner Tyler^[1]	July 23, 1820	July 10, 1889	25,189	68 years, 352 days
25	Eliza McCardle Johnson	October 4, 1810	January 15, 1876	23,844	65 years, 103 days
26	Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis	July 28, 1929	May 19, 1994	23,761	64 years, 295 days
27	Florence Harding	August 15, 1860	November 21, 1924	23,473	64 years, 98 days
28	Margaret Taylor	September 21, 1788	August 14, 1852	23,337	63 years, 328 days
29	Mary Todd Lincoln	December 13, 1818	July 16, 1882	23,226	63 years, 215 days
30	Elizabeth Monroe	June 30, 1768	September 23, 1830	22,729	62 years, 85 days
31	Laura Bush	November 4, 1946		22,711	&0000000000000062.00000062 years, &0000000000000065.00000065 days
32	Hillary Clinton	October 26, 1947		22,355	&0000000000000061.00000061 years, &0000000000000074.00000074 days
33	Caroline Harrison^[2]	October 1, 1832	October 25, 1892	21,939	60 years, 24 days
34	Ida McKinley	June 8, 1847	May 26, 1907	21,901	59 years, 352 days
35	Lucy Webb Hayes	August 28, 1831	June 25, 1889	21,121	57 years, 301 days
36	Jane Pierce	March 12, 1806	December 2, 1863	21,084	57 years, 265 days
37	Abigail Fillmore	March 13, 1798	March 30, 1853	20,105	55 years, 17 days
38	Ellen Louise Wilson^[2]	May 15, 1860	August 6, 1914	19,805	54 years, 83 days
39	Letitia Christian Tyler^[2]	November 12, 1790	September 10, 1842	18,929	51 years, 302 days

[edit] Acting First Lady

Harriet Lane the niece of President James Buchanan acted as the hostess to the President during his term in office. ^[3]

[edit] Women who never became First Lady, but were married to a man who became or was a former President

	Name	Date of birth	Date of death	Longevity		Reason
	Name	Date of birth	Date of death	days	yrs days	Reason
1	Jane Wyman	January 5, 1917	September 10, 2007	33,120	90 years, 257 days	Divorced before her husband became President.
2	Mary Dimmick Harrison	April 30, 1858	January 5, 1948	32,756	89 years, 250 days	Married her husband after he was President.
3	Caroline Fillmore	October 21, 1813	August 11, 1881	24,766	67 years, 294 days	Married her husband after he was President.
4	Rachel Jackson	June 15, 1767	December 22, 1828	22,470	61 years, 190 days	Died before her husband became President.
5	Ellen Lewis Arthur	August 30, 1837	January 12, 1880	15,475	42 years, 135 days	Died before her husband became President.
6	Hannah Van Buren	March 8, 1783	February 5, 1819	13,117	35 years, 334 days	Died before her husband became President.
7	Martha Jefferson	October 19, 1748	September 6, 1782	12,364	33 years, 311 days	Died before her husband became President.
8	Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt	July 29, 1861	February 14, 1884	8,235	22 years, 200 days	Died before her husband became President.

[edit] Deaths of note

[edit] First Ladies who died while their husband was President

Letitia Christian Tyler, Caroline Harrison, and Ellen Louise Wilson all died during their husband's administration.

[edit] Presidential couples who died during a single administration or term

James and Elizabeth Kortright Monroe both died during Andrew Jackson's first term.
Margaret Taylor died before Millard Fillmore finished her late husband Zachary's only term.
Andrew and Eliza McCardle Johnson both died during Ulysses S. Grant's second term.
Rutherford and Lucy Webb Hayes both died during Benjamin Harrison's only term.
Florence Harding died before Calvin Coolidge finished her late husband Warren's only term.
Richard and Pat Nixon both died during Bill Clinton's first term.
Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman, though they had been divorced for more than 50 years, both died during George W. Bush's administration.

[edit] Most former First Ladies who died during a single Presidential administration

Three former First Ladies died during Benjamin Harrison's administration as well as his wife Caroline Harrison. They were Lucy Webb Hayes, Julia Gardiner Tyler, and Sarah Childress Polk.

[edit] Longest deaths after husband

Sarah Polk died nearly 41 years after her husband James Polk
Frances Cleveland died 39 years after her husband Grover Cleveland's death.
Woodrow Wilson's 2nd wife, Edith Bolling Wilson died 37 years after her husband.
Lucretia Garfield died 36 years after James A. Garfield.
Lady Bird Johnson died 34 years after her husband Lyndon B. Johnson's death.

[edit] Longest out of the White House

Frances Cleveland died 50 years after husband completed his term as president. 58 years if you include his first time out of the white house. Which a major part of that is due to the fact that she was much younger than him, causing this to be a record not likely to be beaten.

[edit] Longest to be married

The couple that was married the longest is currently George H. W. Bush and his wife Barbara Bush, who have been married for 63 years.
At number 2 is Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter who have been married for 62 years.
The longest until the husband died was the marriage of Gerald R. Ford and Betty Ford who were married for 58 years.

[edit] Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c Married her husband while he was President.
^ ^a ^b ^c Died while her husband was President.
^ "Biography of Harriet Lane" (html). First Ladies. Retrieved on 2008-10-21.

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