Mary Anna Custis Lee
Mary Anna Custis Lee was born on October 1, 1808. See ranking, bio blurb, and everyone else born that day.
About Mary Anna Custis Lee
Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee (October 1, 1807 – November 5, 1873) was the wife of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee and the last private owner of Arlington House. She was the daughter of George Washington Parke Custis, who was the grandson of Martha Washington, the wife of George Washington. Through her grandmother Eleanor Calvert she was a descendant of King George I.. Lee was a highly educated woman, who edited and published her father's writings after his death. Mary married Robert E. Lee in 1831 at her parents' home, Arlington House, in Virginia. The couple had seven children. Although she sometimes lived with Lee when he was assigned elsewhere, she preferred to reside at Arlington House with her parents. Robert E. Lee resigned from his commission with the U.S. Army to serve his home state of Virginia during the Civil War; he eventually commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Mary Lee was separated from her husband for the majority of the war, during which time she and her children were forced to stay with various family friends. She was never able to return to Arlington House, as it was seized by the United States federal government at the end of the war. After the war, Robert E. Lee became the president of Washington College, and died in 1870. Mary Lee died in 1873.