Presidential First Lady. She was born Julia Gardiner on Staten Island to very wealthy parents. She was well educated in the social graces at a private finishing school. By fifteen, she was already seeking an advantageous marriage which would provide her with social standing and grace. She was pursued by a string of suitors and found her ideal match when she was introduced to widowed President John Tyler who proposed marriage even though thirty years her senior. They were secretly married in New York at her parents' home, then belatedly informed the American public. With less than eight months remaining in the Presidential term, Julia became the First Lady. Though Julia was the First Lady for a mere eight months, she made a real impact. She considered herself royalty. It was Julia who had "Hail to the Chief" played for the President at state functions. She had a "court" of ladies in waiting. She and the President loved to dance, so she introduced both the polka and the waltz to White House balls. A press agent was hired to sound her praises far and wide. Some made fun of the Tylers noting the old adage, "No fool, like an old fool" and Julia was often called "Lady Presidentress." Leaving the White House, they retired to Sherwood Forest where Julia became the mistress of the plantation until the Civil War. Here she bore five of her seven children. She supported the Confederacy and in response to ending slavery, praised it as a civilizing influence and noted their slaves lived better than the poor of London. When Virginia seceded, the Tylers went with it. Julia became a widow at 41 when John Tyler died at the Exchange Hotel in Richmond in January 1862. Tyler's body lay in state in the Confederate Congress wrapped in a Confederate flag. His funeral was in St. Paul's Episcopal Church and a large procession of 150 carriages including Confederate President Jefferson Davis escorted him to Hollywood Cemetery. Ironically, he was buried next to President James Monroe who was a staunch Federalist. Julia fled to her family at Staten Island, New York to wait out the war. Sherwood Forest was captured by Union forces and turned over to the slaves who ransacked the plantation. It was returned to the family after the war but, due to the severity of the damage, Julia was never able to inhabit the plantation again. She spent her last years living in Richmond opposite St. Peter's Roman Catholic Cathedral where she had become a member. She lived to see Sherwood Forest gradually returned to its original condition and often visited the plantation. She died at the age of sixty nine while staying at Richmond's Exchange Hotel, just a few doors down the hall from where her husband had died 27 years earlier. She was interred beside him.