Tennessee’s First Ladies: Eliza McCardle Johnson

Eliza Johnson was hugely influential on her husband Andrew Johnson’s life and career. Married when she was just 16, Eliza was the youngest future first lady to marry. Together, Eliza and Andrew Johnson enjoyed a marriage that lasted some 48 years. She is credited with largely educating her young husband, who had had a difficult childhood with little opportunity for learning. As her husband’s political career rose, Eliza often remained in the background. She was quite sickly, having contracted tuberculosis, and as First Lady, only appeared publicly on two occasions. She succumbed to her illness in 1876, just six months after her husband died of a stroke. Kendra Hinkle, museum specialist at the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site in Greeneville, TN helps us understand the life of the wife of the 17th President.