Sarah Polk

Sarah Childress grew up on a wealthy Tennessee plantation and was given an advanced education. She was solely devoted to James Polk’s political career, and she served as her husband’s loyal secretary, advisor, and trusted supporter. A fashionable dresser, she was also a pious Presbyterian who banned dancing and hard liquor at the White House. James died in 1849, only three months after retiring from Washington, leaving Sarah to live another 42 years on their estate at Polk Place in Tennessee. Perhaps her best political ingenuity was during the Civil War as she maneuvered the preservation of her home as the neutral territory between the Confederacy and the Union.