After Poe's death, Royster refused to speak about him or her relationship, bluntly denying all requests and living a relatively reclusive lifestyle. In 1875, she finally granted an interview to local sculptor Edward Valentine, as a response to a Poe biography written by John H. Ingram. In this conversation, she vehemently denied ever having been engaged to Poe. In June 1884, however, she privately admitted to Dr. John Joseph Moran, Poe's attending physician at the time of his death, that she and Poe had been engaged. Royster died on February 11, 1888, and her obituary, published on the front page of the Richmond "Whig" on February 12, bore the heading "Poe's First and Last Love".