Sara Roosevelt's Marriage Was NEVER What America Believed

They buried her with the ring still on her finger. Worn thin from forty years, its inscription barely readable: "A.L. to Mary, Nov. 4, 1842. Love is Eternal." That's the story America kept. The devoted couple, the tragic widow. But the man history calls the gentlest president spent months at a time away from her, and his own law partner would later brand their home a domestic hell. Ten years after the assassination, her only surviving son dragged her into a courtroom, put twelve men in a jury box, and had her declared insane. She tried to kill herself that night. Then she fought back.