Louisa Adams

U.S. First Lady

Name at birth: Louisa Catherine Johnson

Louisa Adams was the wife of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States. Her father was an American consul to England, and in 1795 she met Adams, who was in London on a diplomatic mission for the United States. They married in 1797. Louisa followed her husband as he served the United States as a diplomat and a senator, and in the presidential election of 1824 she campaigned for him enthusiastically. But her reserved nature and the awkward way her husband came to the presidency -- the U.S. Congress picked Adams rather than Andrew Jackson after neither won a majority of electoral votes -- helped make the couple's four years in the White House (1825-29) less than festive. Louisa also had a tough time as a mother. She had several miscarriages, her daughter died in infancy and she was separated from two of her three sons for many years while Adams was minister to Russia (1809-1817). Later, after the White House years and while Adams was serving as a U.S. congressman, her two older sons died within five years of each other. Her husband died in 1848 and Louisa died four years later.

Extra credit: Louisa Adams is the only president's wife not born on American soil... Her mother was English and her father was from Maryland... She spent most of her childhood in France... For five years she and her husband lived with her in-laws, John Adams and Abigail Adams.

Blog posts mentioning Louisa Adams:
A Birthplace Called Hope