What have been the closest family member deaths of a U.S. President while in office?

Factual Questions
1

Although he seems a physically fit and healthy guy, if Hillary Clinton is elected President then Bill Clinton will be the oldest First Spouse ever. He’ll be older than Nancy Reagan was at the end of her eight years. So, that got me wondering how the White House would handle it if Bill Clinton were to die during Hillary Clinton’s Presidency.

Then, that got me wondering what have been the closest family deaths for a U.S. President during that President’s time in Office. Abraham Lincoln probably wins the contest having had a minor child die during his Presidency. From a cursory glance, it doesn’t seem that any First Lady has ever died during her Husband’s time in office- did I overlook anyone?

How about other deaths of children of the President?
Parents?
Siblings?

2

It’s pretty hard to beat Patrick Kennedy, son of John F. and Jacqueline, dying two days after he was born.

3

Three first ladies died. Letitia Tyler, Caroline Harrison, and Ellen Wilson.

4

Abraham Lincoln’s son died while Lincoln was in office.

5

Bush Snr mother die during his lame duck period.

6

Um, yeah, seems I overlooked three people! :smack:
I was all ready to tell you that you were mistaken about Wilson since I knew very well that Wilson’s wife took over the Oval Office after the President had a stroke. Then I looked it up… his wife Ellen died during his first term and then he remarried, marrying Edith, still within his first term in office!!! I can’t believe I never knew this.

Here’s another I can’t believe I never knew about. Just three and a half months before JFK himself would be killed. There really may be something to the notion that that family was cursed!

7

It was considered quite a scandal at the time.

8

I say Franklin Pierce, president from 1853-1857, might take the top honor.

He and his wife had two sons who died very young. Their third son died after Pierce was elected but prior to his inauguration in a grisly train accident that nearly decapitated the boy which both parents witnessed.

Pierce and his wife never recovered from the incident. Pierce was an ineffective one-term president who sought comfort from a bottle and spent his remaining years lost in the sauce.

9

Mentioned in the OP:

10

While his father was in office in 1924 Calvin Coolidge Jr. died of an infected blister he got playing tennis.

11

Presidential children who have died while their fathers were in office:

1800 Charles Adams, son of John Adams
1802 Thenia Hemings, putative illegitimate daughter of Thomas Jefferson
1804 Mary Jefferson, daughter of Thomas Jefferson
1862 Willie Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln
1924 Calvin Coolige, Jr, son of Calvin Coolidge
1963 Patrick Kennedy, son of John F. Kennedy

12

It happened before he entered public life, but Theodore Roosevelt deserves mention for having his mother and wife die on the same day.

13

And then she lost her husband less than 4 months later. She was one tough woman.

Had Patrick been born 5 years later, he probably would have left the hospital within a few weeks and gone on to live a completely normal life. :frowning:

14

Andrew Jackson’s wife Rachel died after his election but before his inauguration. Their marriage had been somewhat scandalous–since her divorce from husband number one was not quite complete at the time.

But Jackson loved her dearly & her death cast a pall on his presidency.

15

I’d think that if Bill died during Hillary’s presidency the government would probably handle it in exactly the same manner as they would if Hillary never became president. It would be handled as the death of a former president. Which is probably quite a different situation than would be the case if a First Lady died who had never held public office.