Emma Willard - Later Life

Later Life

John Willard, Emma’s husband, died in 1825. She headed the Troy Female Seminary until she remarried in 1838 and left the school in the hands of her son and daughter-in-law. She married Dr. Christopher Yates and moved to Boston with him. He gave up his career, and after nine months of marriage they separated and a Decree nisi was granted in 1843. She spent her later years traveling across America and throughout Europe to promote women’s education. In support of her efforts she published a number of articles and presented lectures across the country to promote the cause. Her efforts helped to establish a school for women in Athens, Greece. Emma Willard died on April 15, 1870, in Troy, New York and was interred at Oakwood Cemetery.

The Troy Female Seminary was renamed the Emma Willard School in 1895 in her honor and today is still promoting her strong belief in women’s education. A statue honoring her services to the cause of higher education was erected in Troy in 1895. An Emma Willard Memorial was erected in Middlebury, Vermont in 1941. In 1905, Willard was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in the Bronx, New York.