The historical narrative around Jane Pierce, the wife of the 14th president of the United States, Franklin Pierce, has long been overshadowed by the horrific death of their 11-year-old son “Bennie” in 1853 as a result of a train accident just weeks before her husband’s inauguration.
The tragic event led future writers to characterize Mrs. Pierce during her tenure as a presidential spouse as an absent and secluded first lady in mourning and in ill health.
But that narrative appears to be incomplete, according to Diana Carlin, co-author of Remember the First Ladies: The Legacies of America’s History-Making Women, in a new essay, “Grief Can Narrow a Life–or Deepen Moral Resolve” spotlighting Mrs. Pierce’s contributions for the national initiative—In Pursuit. The bi-partisan initiative, created by the Washington, D.C.-based organization More Perfect, which includes an alliance of 43 presidential …
