Mary Elizabeth Bliss: Difference between revisions
Floridasand (talk | contribs) Consolidated the marriage section [one sentence, about the 1st wedding] with the political section, which covers the rest of her life. |
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Zachary Taylor was elected to the presidency in 1848, and was inaugurated in 1849. He appointed William Bliss as his Presidential Secretary. |
Zachary Taylor was elected to the presidency in 1848, and was inaugurated in 1849. He appointed William Bliss as his Presidential Secretary. |
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As President Taylor's wife declined the role, Betty Bliss – addressed as "Miss Betty" – served as [[First Lady]] for her father during official White House functions |
As President Taylor's wife declined the role, Betty Bliss – addressed as "Miss Betty" – served as [[First Lady]] for her father during official [[White House]] functions. She and her husband were excited about their roles in Washington, D.C. |
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On July 9, 1850, the Taylor presidency ended prematurely with Zachary Taylor's death. Betty and her husband accompanied her widowed mother Peggy Taylor to [[Pascagoula, Mississippi]], where Mrs. Taylor lived with another married daughter until her death two years later. The following year, William Bliss died of [[yellow fever]] contracted in New Orleans.<ref name=commire2001/> Mrs. Bliss was a widow at the age of 29. |
On July 9, 1850, the Taylor presidency ended prematurely with Zachary Taylor's death. Betty and her husband accompanied her widowed mother Peggy Taylor to [[Pascagoula, Mississippi]], where Mrs. Taylor lived with another married daughter until her death two years later. The following year, William Bliss died of [[yellow fever]] contracted in New Orleans.<ref name=commire2001/> Mrs. Bliss was a widow at the age of 29. |
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Revision as of 12:32, 30 April 2015
Mary Elizabeth "Betty" Taylor Bliss Dandridge, born Mary Elizabeth Taylor (April 20, 1824 – July 25, 1909), was the youngest of the three surviving daughters of President Zachary Taylor (1849-1850) and Margaret Mackall Smith Taylor.
In 1848, after her father was elected President, Mary Elizabeth married William Wallace Smith Bliss, an army officer who had served with her father. Taylor appointed William Bliss as Presidential Secretary. At the age of 22, Mary Elizabeth Bliss served as First Lady during her father's presidency, as her mother declined the social role.[1]
Her father, mother, and husband all died by 1853. Betty Bliss remarried five years later and had a long life.
Early life and education
Betty Taylor was the youngest of five daughters (two died before she was born) of Peggy and Zachary Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, then on the frontier. She also had a younger brother, Dick Taylor. She and her siblings grew up alternately at their plantation in Louisville and U.S. Army forts, where her father, a career Army officer, was often in command. Her mother mostly taught the children at home, sometimes with the help of tutors or young army officers. In the late 1820s, the family moved to a plantation near Baton Rouge, as her father was purchasing land in the area.
In the early 1830s, the family was with Taylor at Fort Crawford as he waged the Black Hawk War. Later they returned to Baton Rouge, when he went to territorial Florida for the Second Seminole War and then to Texas.
Marriage and political career
On December 8, 1848, Betty married William Wallace Smith Bliss, an army officer who had served with her father.[2]
Zachary Taylor was elected to the presidency in 1848, and was inaugurated in 1849. He appointed William Bliss as his Presidential Secretary.
As President Taylor's wife declined the role, Betty Bliss – addressed as "Miss Betty" – served as First Lady for her father during official White House functions. She and her husband were excited about their roles in Washington, D.C.
On July 9, 1850, the Taylor presidency ended prematurely with Zachary Taylor's death. Betty and her husband accompanied her widowed mother Peggy Taylor to Pascagoula, Mississippi, where Mrs. Taylor lived with another married daughter until her death two years later. The following year, William Bliss died of yellow fever contracted in New Orleans.[2] Mrs. Bliss was a widow at the age of 29.
On February 11, 1858, Betty married again, to Philip Pendleton Dandridge.[2] They had children. Mary Elizabeth Taylor Dandridge lived to the age of 85.
References
- ^ Smith, Elbert B. (2007). President Zachary Taylor: The Hero President. Nova Publishers. p. 157. ISBN 978-1-60021-602-2.
- ^ a b c Commire, Anne; Deborah Klezmer (2001). Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Yorkin Publications. p. 225. ISBN 978-0-7876-4074-3.
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