List of Ford's Theatre Attendees

[Linda Anderson]

(04-30-2026 04:39 PM)jbarry Wrote:  

(04-30-2026 02:44 PM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  I thought of one person who is not on the list: Mary Lincoln.

Also, I asked my son who he thought was in the box and not named on the list and he said, "Booth?"

Good point by your son! BTW, I do have Mary, but it's under Todd-Lincoln.

Booth even wrote what happened in his diary! A bit exaggerated, of course.

I was wondering about Mary's name so I did a little research. Ruth Painter Randall wrote in Mary Lincoln: Biography of a Marriage :

"The pain of Mary, the loving older sister, torn two ways in that struggle between Emilie's pleading and Lincoln's refusal, necessarily cut deep. This was probably one case where she could see both sides, but the rule with her in a choice between Lincoln and her family was that her husband came first. She thought of herself as Mary Lincoln, not Mary Todd Lincoln." 346.

There is no mention in the newspaper archives I consulted until the 1870's of "Mary Todd Lincoln."

So she was "Mary Lincoln" on April 14. If you do decide the leave "Todd" in, I suggest listing her as "Lincoln, Mary Todd."