Eleanor Lightner

Eleanor Desha (Shelby)

She was the first wife of U.S. Representative Robert Desha and the maternal grandmother of American socialites Alva Eskine Belmont Vanderbilt (Smith) and Mary Virginia Tiffany Yznaga (Smith)

Robert Desha was granted a divorce from Eleanor on October 3, 1833 for adultery (Sumner County Chancery Court, Volume A - C, November 1826 - April 1844, pp. 964-66). Some family trees show her death as October 30, 1833, but according to Vanessa Desha she married Judge Levi Luther Lightner from Illinois and died in 1839 and her will filed in Illinois.

Eleanor had two children with Judge Lightner, including Captain Albert Shelby Lightner and Levi Luther Lightner, Jr.

NOTE: Judge Lightner used to entertain Abraham Lincoln when he would visit Thebes, Illinois.