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| James K. Polk before his inauguration | Sarah Polk during the White House days (age 45) |
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| James K. Polk before his inauguration | Sarah Polk during the White House days (age 45) |
Although Polk spent only four years in the White House, he aged tremendously during that time. His health had never been robust -- he had required surgery for a bladder stone as a young boy, and had been frail all his life. Then when he and Sarah returned to Tennessee after a very successful, but stressful tenure in office, a cholera epidemic was raging. The retired president caught the fever, and was dead three months later.
Sarah Polk lived for many years after becoming a widow. She never remarried, and they never had any children, but she surrounded herself with extended family and adopted an orphaned neice. .
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| James Polk near the end of his presidential term | Sarah Polk at age 86 |