Sarah Childress Polk

Historians consider James K. Polk one of America's most effective presidents, yet some speculate that given his chronic ill health and paranoid tendencies, he might not have made it through four years of office without the help of his wife, Sarah Childress Polk. An educated woman in an era when most of her sex were illiterate, Sarah was praised for her political acumen. (Franklin Pierce, who served as Polk's attorney general, said he preferred to talk politics with Sarah over anyone, including Polk himself.) So remarkable were her tact and charm, she won the admiration even of her husband's political enemies. Always an individualist, she eschewed activism and refused to cast her lot with one side or the other in battles over temperance and abolition; yet she adhered openly to her own singular values, for which she was much respected. Even in the present era of strong first ladies, Sarah Polk still stands out as a uniquely effective political helpmate in the male-dominated world of nineteenth-century politics.