Mary's funeral expenses

[Susan Higginbotham]

The source for the 64 trunks is Mary Edwards Brown, a great-niece of Mary, who was interviewed for Life magazine in 1959.

According to Donna McCreary, the 1874 letter in which Mary asked to be buried in the white silk dress in the drawer was written to Dr. Willis Danforth, not Robert Todd Lincoln. Donna cites Mark Neely and R. Gerald McMurty's The Insanity File as the source for stating that the Edwardses sent a telegram to Chicago for white silk after Mary's death, so if they were aware of the letter to Dr. Danforth, they seem to have honored Mary's wishes as to material at least.