Sarah Angelica Van Buren

Born Sarah Angelica Singleton. Daughter-in-law of President Martin Van Buren. Honorary First Lady (as Van Buren's wife was deceased) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelica_Van_Buren

Second cousin once removed of First Lady Dolley Madison.

First Lady. Sarah Angelica Singleton was born and raised at the family plantation, Home Place, in Sumter County, South Carolina. The daughter of Rebecca Travis (Coles) and Richard Singleton, she finished her education at Madame Grelaud's Seminary in Philadelphia.

Through her cousin Dolley Madison she was introduced to Washington society. On November 27, 1838 she married Abraham Van Buren, the eldest of four sons of US President Martin Van Buren who approved of the marriage, particularly for the ties it brought between the White House and the powerful Southern aristocracy. During her years as "Lady of the Presidents House" she brought back not only style but true etiquette to the White House. The President and she gave mostly small dinner parties dispensing with all large functions other than the New Year's Day reception. It was necessary to redecorate and replace furniture that had been battered by the eight years of the Jackson administration, but she was careful to not be extravagant during a time of inherited hard economic depression.

Even the French minister Adolphe Fourier de Bacourt, who was often critical of Americans, claimed that "in any country" she would "pass for an amiable woman of graceful and distinguished manners and appearance." She gave birth to four children, the first of whom, a daughter, born in the White House died after a few hours. Returning to private life after her years in Washington, her husband and she lived at first at the Van Buren home, Lindenwald at Kinderhook, but they would winter in South Carolina. From 1848 they lived in New York City where she was known not only for her grace but her charitable work. She remained there as a widow, after her husband's death in 1873, until her own death.