Lucy Lambert Hale
Encyclopedia
Lucy Lambert Hale was the daughter of US Senator John Parker Hale of New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

, and was a noted Washington, DC society belle. She attracted many admirers including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932...

, Robert Todd Lincoln
Robert Todd Lincoln
Robert Todd Lincoln was an American lawyer and Secretary of War, and the first son of President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln...

; and stage actor and presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor...

, to whom she was secretly engaged. Lucy's photograph was found in Booth's pocket after he was killed by Federal troops, 12 days after he assassinated Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

.

Lucy later went on to marry Senator William E. Chandler
William E. Chandler
William Eaton Chandler was a lawyer who served as United States Secretary of the Navy and as a U.S. Senator from New Hampshire.-Early life:...

, United States Secretary of the Navy
United States Secretary of the Navy
The Secretary of the Navy of the United States of America is the head of the Department of the Navy, a component organization of the Department of Defense...

.

Early years

She was born on January 1, 1841 in Dover, New Hampshire
Dover, New Hampshire
Dover is a city in Strafford County, New Hampshire, in the United States of America. The population was 29,987 at the 2010 census, the largest in the New Hampshire Seacoast region...

, the second eldest daughter of U.S. Senator John Parker Hale and Lucy Hill Lambert, daughter of William Thomas Lambert and Abigail Ricker. She was described as "pretty, precocious, sweet and good". At the age of 12, she was receiving poems from a Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 student by the name of William Chandler. He was the first of her many romantic conquests, which also included Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. whom she met on vacation in Maine and with whom she began a romantic correspondence in 1858 when she was 17 years old. At that time, she was described as having had "dark hair, blue eyes, a clear skin, and a stunning figure". Her manner toward men was a "subtle brew of flattery, teasing and cajoling; of rapt attention laced with a hints of indifference and occasionally a touch of cruelty". She was shortly afterwards enrolled at a boarding school in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

.

Another of her admirers was Robert Todd Lincoln, eldest son of the future American president Abraham Lincoln. Her father had entertained the hope that Lucy would marry Robert; and although Senator Hale's wishes did not come to fruition, the couple would remain good friends for many years.

John Wilkes Booth

When the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 broke out in April 1861, she, her parents, and her sister Elizabeth went to live at the National Hotel in Washington, D.C., and she began working for the "Sanitation Committee". She was seen at many parties, dances, and social functions and was one of the belles of Washington society. She and her mother also visited the soldiers at the front lines when there was a cessation of fighting.

On Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day
Saint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496...

, 1862, she received an anonymous note from John Wilkes Booth, a wildly popular stage actor and notorious ladies man, in which he wrote:

My dear Miss Hale, were it not for the License with a time-honored observance of this day allows, I had not written you this poor note. ... You resemble in a most remarkable degree a lady, very dear to me, now dead and your close resemblance to her surprised me the first time I saw you. This must be my apology for any apparent rudeness noticeable. To see you has indeed afforded me a melancholy pleasure, if you can conceive of such, and should we never meet nor I see you again believe me, I shall always associate you in my memory, with her, who was very beautiful, and whose face, like your own I trust, was a faithful index of gentleness and amiability. With a Thousand kind wishes for your future happiness I am, to you,


A Stranger.


His courtship of Lucy was conducted with much secrecy, but by early 1865, they were often seen together in public, and became clandestinely engaged. On March 4, 1865, Booth attended Lincoln's second presidential inauguration
Presidential Inauguration
A Presidential Inauguration is a formal ceremony to mark the beginning of a leader's term of office. To see detailed information on specific presidents, see the links below:* Brazilian presidential inauguration* Croatian presidential inauguration...

 with a ticket that Lucy had procured through her father. On March 17, his mother, Mary Ann
Junius Brutus Booth
Junius Brutus Booth was an English actor. He was the father of John Wilkes Booth , Edwin Booth , and Junius Brutus Booth, Jr., an actor and theatre manager...

 wrote Booth:

The secret you have told me is not exactly a secret as Edwin (Booth's brother) was told by someone, you were paying great attention to a young lady in Washington, and if the lady in question is all you desire- I see no cause why you should not try to secure her. ... Her father ... would he give his consent?


By this time, Booth was already heavily involved in his plan to kidnap President Lincoln, which miscarried and evolved into the assassination plot. There was no reason to suspect that Lucy knew anything of the plot to kill the president, nor was she aware of the deep antipathy her fiancé felt towards Lincoln. Lucy's father was an outspoken abolitionist. Lucy and Booth had begun to quarrel during this time, according to Booth's sister Asia
Asia Booth
Asia Frigga Clarke , was the youngest daughter in the family of ten children born to Junius Brutus Booth and his wife Mary Ann Holmes. Her famous brothers were Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth...

 who later reported that Booth had become enraged when he saw Lucy dancing with the President's son and her erstwhile admirer, Robert Todd Lincoln, one evening at the National Hotel.

Lincoln's assassination

On the afternoon of April 14, Lucy allegedly spent the afternoon studying Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 with Robert Lincoln, and another former admirer, John Hay
John Hay
John Milton Hay was an American statesman, diplomat, author, journalist, and private secretary and assistant to Abraham Lincoln.-Early life:...

, President Lincoln's assistant private secretary
Private Secretary
In the United Kingdom government, a Private Secretary is a civil servant in a Department or Ministry, responsible to the Secretary of State or Minister...

. Her father had just been appointed United States ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....

 to Spain, and she and her mother were making preparations to accompany him to his new post. According to some witnesses, Booth and Lucy had met that morning at the National Hotel and in the evening, Booth had dined with Lucy and her mother; at 8.00 P.M, he allegedly looked at his watch, stood up and after taking her hand in his, recited some lines from William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

's Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

: "Nymph, in thy orisons (prayers), be all my sins remembered".

When Booth shot and mortally wounded President Lincoln that night at Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre is a historic theater in Washington, D.C., used for various stage performances beginning in the 1860s. It is also the site of the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865...

, their romance came to an abrupt end. She was devastated by the news, and found it impossible to believe her fiance had been the assassin. Several evenings prior to the assassination, Booth had taken her to a performance at Ford's. She wrote a letter to his brother, Edwin
Edwin Booth
Edwin Thomas Booth was a famous 19th century American actor who toured throughout America and the major capitals of Europe, performing Shakespearean plays. In 1869 he founded Booth's Theatre in New York, a spectacular theatre that was quite modern for its time...

 expressing her shock and sorrow, while her father published notices in the press denying there had ever been an "intimate connection" between his daughter and Booth.

When Booth was later shot and killed on April 26, by pursuing Federal
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...

 troops, five photographs of women were discovered in his pocket, and one of them was of Lucy. There were rumours that she had gone, heavily veiled, aboard the USS Montauk
USS Montauk (1862)
The first USS Montauk was a single-turreted monitor in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.It saw action throughout the war and was used as the floating prison for the conspirators in the Abraham Lincoln assassination and was the site of the autopsy and identification of assassin...

in the Washington Navy Yard
Washington Navy Yard
The Washington Navy Yard is the former shipyard and ordnance plant of the United States Navy in Southeast Washington, D.C. It is the oldest shore establishment of the U.S. Navy...

 to view the body of Booth which lay in one of the cabins, and upon seeing it, threw herself on him, sobbing. She was not called by the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton to testify at the trial of Booth's co-conspirators.

Marriage

In the wake of the assassination, Lucy accompanied her parents to Spain, where her father took up his post as ambassador. She remained in Europe for five years, during which time she received and refused many offers of marriage from titled aristocrats. France, Italy, and Switzerland, were among the countries she visited; in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 she attended the theatre with her former beaux Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., John Hay, and Frederick Anderson.

In 1870, she returned to America to care for her sick father, and renewed a correspondence with her first admirer, the successful corporation lawyer William E. Chandler, whose wife, Ann Gilmore had died. They were married in 1874 and in March 1885, her only son, John Parker Hall Chandler, was born when she was 44 years old. In 1882, Lucy's husband became Secretary of the Navy, and in 1887, a United States senator. She immersed herself in politics at her husband's side and was a successful hostess at the many social functions Chandler held in Washington.

She died on October 15, 1915 and was buried at Pine Hill Cemetery in her hometown of Dover, New Hampshire.

In film

Lucy Lambert Hale appeared as a character in the 1998 television film The Day Lincoln Was Shot. She was portrayed by American actress Jean Louisa Kelly
Jean Louisa Kelly
Jean Louisa Kelly is an American actress and singer. She is perhaps best known for her long-running role as Kim Warner on the television sitcom Yes, Dear.-Career:...

, with Rob Morrow
Rob Morrow
Robert Alan "Rob" Morrow is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of Don Eppes on Numb3rs and as Dr. Joel Fleischman on Northern Exposure, a role which garnered him three Golden Globes and two Emmy Award nominations for "Best Actor in a Dramatic Series."-Personal life:Morrow was born in...

in the role of John Wilkes Booth.
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