14. Julia was proposed to by John Tyler just weeks after the President had lost his wife of 30 years to cancer!
Just 8 months after he had first welcomed the Gardiner family to the White House and met their eldest daughter for the first time, President John Tyler lost his wife to the stroke she had suffered almost a year previously. Though he had been married for nearly 30 years, Tyler wasted no time in trying to find a second wife. And he was fixated on the much-younger, feisty and very attractive Julia. What’s more, he made no secret of his desires, openly flirting with her whenever she would visit the White House with her family. The President is even said to have chased her around a table trying to steal a kiss.
In all, less than five months passed between the death of his wife Letitia and President Tyler proposing marriage to Julia. He asked her outright at a masquerade ball held at the White House to honor George Washington’s birthday. And she turned him down outright. Not only was he 30 years old than her, Tyler was also a Southerner, quiet, often moody and showing his age. In comparison, she was young, vivacious and outgoing. Despite the knockback, Tyler asked again – and again. Though she repeatedly turned down his proposals, Julia did respond to his romantic letters and the pair struck up a regular correspondence.