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Politically minded first lady Sarah Polk led her husband James Polk’s successful campaign to become the 11th U.S. president in 1845.


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Sarah Polk was born on September 4, 1803, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She married James Polk in 1824. In 1926, she moved to Washington, while he was in the House of Representatives. Politically minded, she led her husband’s successful campaign to become the 11th U.S. president in 1845. She spent her final 40 years at Polk’s Place in Nashville, Tennessee, where she died on August 14, 1891.

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