Julia Gardiner was only 24 when she married the widowed President John Tyler, aged 54. Together they had seven children to add to the seven Tyler had had with his first wife. She served as First Lady for a mere eight months but left behind a history of sensational entertaining. After leaving the White House, the Tylers lived on a Virginia estate. With the coming of the Civil War, the Tylers demonstrated definite Southern sympathies; Tyler had plans to serve in the Confederate Congress. At Tyler's death in 1862, the U.S. government took no notice while the Confederacy gave him a hero's send-off. Julia Tyler outlived her husband by 27 years. In her later years, she returned to Washington D.C. It has been said that those years were marked by economic hardship, a far-cry from her days as Washington's social star.