First Lady. She assumed the role of "First Lady" of the United States, while her nearly two-decade widower father-in-law Martin Van Buren, was serving as the eighth President of the United States from 1837 to 1841. At the age of nearly 23, she is credited with being the youngest hostess of the White House, serving most of the last two years of Van Buren's term. Born Sarah Angelica Singleton, one of six children of Rebecca Travis Coles and Richard Singleton, she had the privileged childhood at the family plantation, "Home Place", in Sumter County, South Carolina. The wealthy and prominent Singleton family had lived in South Carolina since colonial times, having several plantations and according to the 1840 Federal Census, had 579 slaves. Her mother's Cole line was politically prominent. Starting at a girls' school in Columbia, she finished her education at an elite boarding school, Madame Grelaud's Seminary in Philadelphia. Through her mother's cousin Dolley Madison, she was introduced to the society of Washington, D. C. In the early months of Van Buren's presidency, Dolley Madison had been acting as Van Buren's hostess. Within eight months of being introduced, on November 27, 1838, she married the eldest of the four sons of Van Buren, Abraham Van Buren, a West Point graduate, who had served in the Second Seminole War. President Van Buren approved of the marriage, particularly for the ties it brought between his northern abolitionist constituents in the White House and the powerful Southern slave-owning aristocracy of her family. Her husband served as the president's private secretary, while she began her hostess duties on January 1, 1839. Starting the spring of 1839, the couple had an extended honeymooned in England and France, being treated as royalty by French King Louis Philippe. During her years as "Lady of the Presidents House," she brought back not only style but true etiquette to the White House. She hosted for President Van Buren mostly small dinner parties dispensing with all large functions except for the New Year's Day reception. When it was necessary to redecorate and replace furniture in the White House that had been battered by the eight-year term of the President Andrew Jackson administration, she was careful to not be extravagant during a time of inherited hard economic depression and the "Panic of 1837." Van Buren, who had served as Jackson's Secretary of State and Vice President, was continuing the financial practices of the earlier administration. When lavish silverware was purchased, the Whig Party oppositions of Democratic President Van Buren were loudly heard against any decorating. As a teenage student, she started using the French version of her middle name, "Angelique." Even the French minister Adolphe Fourier de Bacourt, who was often critical of Americans, claimed that "in any country" she would "pass for an amiable woman of graceful and distinguished manners and appearance." She gave birth to five children. The first was a very small daughter, Rebecca, who was born in the White House and becoming the White House's first death. During and following her pregnancy, her hosting duties were halted for nearly a year as she did not rally well after the March of 1840 birth and the death of her infant daughter in the following fall. After leaving the White House, she had four sons, with three living to adulthood: Singleton, Martin, and Travis. After a four-year term, President Van Buren was not re-elected. During the time she was in the White House, the newspaper printed numerous articles about her. Returning to private life after her years in White House, she and her husband lived at first at the Van Buren New York home, "Lindenwald," in the Hudson River Valley village of Kinderhook, but they would winter in South Carolina with her family. Her husband returned to his military commission in 1846 during the Mexican War, becoming a highly decorated lieutenant colonel. After the war in 1848 she and her husband lived in New York City, where she was known not only for her grace but her charitable work for the working class. The couple traveled to Europe for long periods. For several years, her husband oversaw management of her family's South Carolina plantation, which she had inherited in 1852 with her father's death yet was sold by 1856. Her husband has two strokes after returning from the Mexican War, which partially handicapped him. During the American Civil War, she was separated from her South Carolina family. Her charitable efforts during the war included giving blankets to the Confederate prisoners of war held in Elmira, New York. Her father-in-law died during the war in 1862. She remained in New York as a widow, after her husband's death from asthma in 1873, until her own death four years later. Her 1842 portrait of her posing in a pale pink silk gown in front of father-in-law's bust remains hanging over the fireplace in the Red Room of the White House in the 21st century. Although historians have ranked Molly Madison as the fourth most popular "First Ladies," she ranks 33rd out of 44. Her limited time of actually serving may have impacted this ranking.