Elizabeth Blair Lee

Early life Elizabeth Lee was born on June 20, 1818, in Frankfort, Kentucky, to Francis Preston Blair and Eliza Violet Gist Blair. She was the sister of Montgomery Blair, James L. Blair, and Francis Preston Blair Jr. who served as First Lady for her uncle, whose wife had died. Elizabeth lived in the White House one winter because of her health problems from dampness at Blair House.

According to one version of the story, Elizabeth or her father chanced upon the silver-flecked spring in 1840, inspiring the name of the family's summer home in what would eventually become Silver Spring, Maryland. The spring site is memorialized at Silver Spring's Acorn Park though the water source was disrupted in the 1950s.

Marriage and family life

She married Samuel Phillips Lee, a U.S. Naval officer on April 27, 1843. During the Civil War, he was away for long periods. Her letters to her husband describe wartime life in her homes of Washington, D.C. and Silver Spring, Maryland. Her letters are published in the book Wartime Washington: the Civil War letters of Elizabeth Blair Lee. Lee received a townhouse next to Blair House in Washington, D.C. from her father. Blair House was given by her parents to her brother Montgomery. Her parents stayed with her at the townhouse during the winter months. She stayed with them at Silver Spring when her husband was at sea. After the war, in 1870, Samuel was promoted to rear admiral. He retired in 1873 and became a farmer in Silver Spring.

Charitable organizations

Lee worked with Dolley Madison and Marcia Van Ness, founders of the Washington City Orphan Asylum, to care for orphans left homeless during the War of 1812. Lee was a manager of the organization for 57 years and the directoress for 44 years. She also helped establish the Children's National Hospital and the Columbia Hospital for Women. Lee was a founding member and first president of the Washington Club and a regent for the Mary Washington Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Later years and death Lee had to stop working in the late 1890s, having lost her sight and due to age. She died on September 13, 1906, in Silver Spring, Maryland. Blair was buried next to her husband at Arlington National Cemetery.