Election 2012: First Ladies by the Numbers

Photo by: Courtesy of firstladies.org

29: Age of Martha "Patsy" Jefferson Randolph when she began serving as her father's unofficial First Lady in 1801. Thomas Jefferson's wife had died 19 years earlier, and he promised her he would never remarry. Patsy's son was the first baby born in the White House.

2: Number of years Andrew Jackson and his wife, Rachel, accidentally lived as bigamists. (Her first husband apparently had permission to file for ... more 

Photo by: Courtesy of firstladies.org

29: Age of Martha "Patsy" Jefferson Randolph when she began serving as her father's unofficial First Lady in 1801. Thomas Jefferson's wife had died 19 years earlier, and he promised her he would never remarry. Patsy's son was the first baby born in the White House.

2: Number of years Andrew Jackson and his wife, Rachel, accidentally lived as bigamists. (Her first husband apparently had permission to file for divorce in 1790 but didn't.) The Jacksons quietly remarried when her divorce was final in 1794, but their initial illegal marriage became a scandal leading up to the 1828 presidential campaign.

20: Days after her husband's win that Rachel Jackson died. She was buried on Christmas Eve in the white dress she'd bought for the upcoming 1829 inauguration. less