Silks and satins little Sarah took for granted, growing up on a plantation near
Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Elder daughter of Captain Joel and Elizabeth
Childress, she gained something rarer from her father's wealth. He sent her and
her sister away to school, first to Nashville, then to the Moravians' "female
academy" at Salem, North Carolina, one of the very few institutions of higher
learning available to women in the early 19th century. So she acquired an
education that made her especially fitted to assist a man with a political
career.

James K. Polk was laying the foundation for that career when he met her. He had
begun his first year's service in the Tennessee legislature when they were
married on New Year's Day, 1824; he was 28, she 20. The story goes that Andrew
Jackson had encouraged their romance; he certainly made Polk a political
protege, and as such Polk represented a district in Congress for 14 sessions.

In an age when motherhood gave a woman her only acknowledged career, Sarah Polk
had to resign herself to childlessness. Moreover, no lady would admit to a
political role of her own, but Mrs. Polk found scope for her astute mind as
well as her social skills. She accompanied her husband to Washington whenever
she could, and they soon won a place in its most select social circles.
Constantly--but privately--Sarah was helping him with his speeches, copying his
correspondence, giving him advice. Much as she enjoyed politics, she would warn
him against overwork. He would hand her a newspaper--"Sarah, here is something
I wish you to read..."--and she would set to work as well.

A devout Presbyterian, she refused to attend horse races or the theater; but
she always maintained social contacts of value to James. When he returned to
Washington as President in 1845, she stepped to her high position with ease and
evident pleasure. She appeared at the inaugural ball, but did not dance.

Contrasted with Julia Tyler's waltzes, her entertainments have become famous
for sedateness and sobriety. Some later accounts say that the Polks never
served wine, but in December 1845 a Congressman's wife recorded in her diary
details of a four-hour dinner for forty at the White House--glasses for six
different wines, from pink champagne to ruby port and sauterne, "formed a
rainbow around each plate." Skilled in tactful conversation, Mrs. Polk enjoyed
wide popularity as well as deep respect.

Only three months after retirement to their fine new home "Polk Place" in
Nashville, he died, worn out by years of public service. Clad always in black,
Sarah Polk lived on in that home for 42 years, guarding the memory of her
husband and accepting honors paid to her as honors due to him. The house became
a place of pilgrimage.

During the Civil War, Mrs. Polk held herself above sectional strife and
received with dignity leaders of both Confederate and Union armies; all
respected Polk Place as neutral ground. She presided over her house until her
death in her 88th year. Buried beside her husband, she was mourned by a nation
that had come to regard her as a precious link to the past.