Emily Donelson - White House Hostess

White House Hostess

It has been speculated that even before Rachel Donelson Jackson's death in 1828, Jackson had planned for Emily to accompany them to Washington to assist Rachel in the duties of White House hostess. The Jacksons had maintained a similar arrangement with Emily at The Hermitage, their plantation in Tennessee. The death of Rachel Donelson Jackson caused these plans to be abandoned and Andrew Jackson asked Emily to take over all the responsibilities of the White House hostess.

She arrived in Washington at the age of 21. Her husband, A. J. Donelson, served as President Jackson's private secretary. The first months of Jackson's administration marked a period of mourning for Rachel Donelson Jackson. The unofficial period of mourning ended when Emily hosted a New Year's party at the White House on January 1, 1830.

Read more about this topic:  Emily Donelson

Famous quotes containing the words white, house and/or hostess:

    Slavery is no scholar, no improver; it does not love the whistle of the railroad; it does not love the newspaper, the mail-bag, a college, a book or a preacher who has the absurd whim of saying what he thinks; it does not increase the white population; it does not improve the soil; everything goes to decay.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built!
    Bible: Hebrew, 1 Kings 8:27.

    Solomon at the dedication of the temple.

    You are retired
    As if you were a feasted one and not
    The hostess of the meeting.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)