Mary Todd Lincoln was the wife of America’s 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. She became the White House’s most criticized and misunderstood first lady who led a controversial and tragic life to the end. Her mother died when she was six years old after which her father re-married. Though he ensured she had the best of education, she did not get along with her stepmother. She was courted by Stephen Douglas of the Democratic Party, but she chose to marry Abraham Lincoln, a Republican. When her husband got elected as the President of America, she had to make a concerted effort to blend her ‘Westerner’ upbringing with the predominantly ‘Eastern’ culture of Washington DC. This was all the more difficult because her relatives were fighting for the Confederacy. She had four sons of whom only one outlived her. Her husband was assassinated in her presence while they were witnessing a play in Ford’s Theatre. Though she was granted a pension and had an inheritance that was more than adequate, she had a phobia of being poor and behaved erratically. Her son ultimately confined her to an asylum from where she had to gain her freedom with the help of a lawyer. During her last days she lived with her sister in Springfield, where she died and was buried beside her husband.