First Ladies with the longest retirements

[Plankton5165]

Who are they? I tried googling it and no luck there.

[Mr. Smith]

Rosalynn Carter prolly wins this...possibly more for Edith Wilson or Frances Cleveland.

[Orser67]

I think here are the ones who had retirements longer than 40 years. Years in retirement in parentheses:

First ladies:
Frances Cleveland - 50 years (1897-1947)
Julia Gardiner Tyler - 44 years (1845-1889)
Rosalynn Carter - 42 years (1981-present)
Sarah Polk - 42 years (1849-1891)
Edith Wilson - 40 years (1821-1861)

Acting first ladies:
Sarah Yorke Jackson (Andrew Jackson's daughter-in-law) - 50 years (1837-1887)
Harriet Lane (James Buchanan's niece) - 42 years (1861-1903)

[Plankton5165]

Didn't Elizabeth Priscilla Tyler's retirement last for 45 years?

[Skill and Chance]

I think here are the ones who had retirements longer than 40 years. Years in retirement in parentheses:

First ladies:
Frances Cleveland - 50 years (1897-1947)
Julia Gardiner Tyler - 44 years (1845-1889)
Rosalynn Carter - 42 years (1981-present)
Sarah Polk - 42 years (1849-1891)
Edith Wilson - 40 years (1821-1861)

Acting first ladies:
Sarah Yorke Jackson (Andrew Jackson's daughter-in-law) - 50 years (1837-1887)
Harriet Lane (James Buchanan's niece) - 42 years (1861-1903)

Notable that James K. Polk only had 3 months of retirement before dying of cholera.  Sarah never remarried.

[Del Tachi]

Not a First Lady, but someone very close to one.

Suzanne Perrin, the second wife of FDR, Jr., is still alive.  She's 102. 

[Plankton5165]

Also, if we counted the four years that seperated Cleveland's two terms, Frances would have a 54-year retirement.

[Plankton5165]

Also, Edith Wilson's retirement lasted from 1921 to 1961, not 1821 to 1861.

[The Corvid Whisperer]

Grover Cleveland married Frances while he was in the White House and she was twenty-one so I would have been shocked if she hadn't had the longest retirement.

[Joe Republic]

The shortest retirement was Abigail Fillmore, who died on March 30th 1853 only 26 days after her husband left office.