The darling of the capital, Julia Gardiner Tyler was the second wife of the tenth President, John Tyler. She became First Lady from 1844 to 1845 after their secret engagement and wedding. “I grieve my love a belle should be,” sighed one of Julia Gardiner’s innumerable admirers in 1840; at the age of 20 she was already famous as the “Rose of Long Island.”. The first President to marry in office took his vows in New York on June 26, 1844. The news was then broken to the American people, who greeted it with keen interest, much publicity, and some criticism about the couple’s difference in age: 30 years.