The “rubber box” or did Laura Keene indeed held Lincoln’s head?

[STS Lincolnite]

(09-21-2014 03:44 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  I completely agree Jim. I think it's why I get sometimes get so heated on this board defending her. Even before the assassination, even before she met and married AL, she had been put through an emotional Cuisinart, imo.

But I also think the depth of the connection between the Lincolns is underestimated and has become obscured by MTL's very real emotional problems. She will always be thought of primarily as the difficult woman he endured, and I think it's a real shame.

Your statement about MTL deserving pity more than scorn is certainly true. But I have also come to have a certain admiration for her. She was no Edith or Eleanor Roosevelt, but she was, in her own, way a survivor.

Mary Lincoln certainly did have emotional problems and there is no doubt she suffered more terrible losses in her life than any person should have to. I think your referral to Mary as "a survivor" is as simple and fitting a description as I have yet heard for her.