Lincoln, Mary (1818–1882)

US first lady. She married the future US president, Abraham Lincoln, in 1842. She was emotionally immature and she became mentally unbalanced as the years passed. As first lady, it seemed that she could do nothing right; she overspent, was exceedingly jealous of Lincoln's affections, and was accused of Confederate sympathies. Following the loss of her son Willie in 1862, and Lincoln's assassination in 1865, she had a mental breakdown and was briefly treated in a sanatorium in 1875. After a tour of Europe, she returned to Springfield, Illinois. She was born Mary Todd in Lexington, Kentucky.