Have you ever wondered...
Have any presidents or first ladies died at the White House?
Two presidents and three first ladies have died at the White House. President William Henry Harrison died on April 4, 1841, just one month after his Inauguration. Historians have long believed that Harrison died from pneumonia, but recent scholarship has suggested that he succumbed to enteric or typhoid fever. President Zachary Taylor also died at the White House on July 9, 1850, after suffering a stomach illness that was likely cholera or some other gastrointestinal illness.
Three first ladies have died at the White House. Letitia Tyler died on September 10, 1842 following a stroke. Caroline Harrison died of tuberculosis on October 25, 1892. On August 6, 1914, Ellen Wilson passed away after battling Bright’s Disease.
Although Harrison and Taylor are the only two presidents to die at the White House, Presidents Warren G. Harding (cardiovascular event/heart attack) and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (cerebral hemorrhage) also died in office. There were also four presidents who died by assassination—Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy.
In total, seven presidents have laid in repose in the White House East Room: William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley, Warren G. Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy. Of the eight presidents who died in office, only James Garfield’s remains were not placed in the East Room, as he had died away from Washington, D.C. and instead his body laid in state at the U.S. Capitol.
