The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-09-18
BLAIR LEE
OF FAMOUS FAMILY DEAD

Washington Post
Mrs. Elizabeth Blair Lee, widow OF
Rear Admiral S. p. Lee. passed away
at her home at Silver Springs, Md,
about $40 o'clock yesterday afteAnoon.
in her seth year. She is survived by
her only son. Hon. Blair Lee.
Mrs. Lee was the last to survive or
the family of Hon. Francis p. Blair,
sr., who was a personal and political
friend of President Andrew Jackson
Mrs. Lees mother was a Miss Gist,
daughter of Nathaniel Gist, and the
granddaughter of Christopher Gist. the
early Kentucky explorer who Informed
Daniel Boone of that country.
On her mothers side, Mrs. Blair, Sr.,
was a descendant from the Towards of
Maryland and Careys of Virginia.
Mrs. Lee was sister OF the late
Montgomery Blair, formerly Judge In
St. Louis, Mo. and afterward Postmas-
ter General in President Lincoln's cab
met. Another brother was James l.
Blair, a lieutenant in the United States
navy who resigned his position. went
to California, and placed the frst
on the Sacramento river, and
laid the foundations of a good fortune
but died at the age of IS years from
the result of exposure. occasioned by
the Wilks arctic expedition. Her
youngest brother was the late Francis
p. Blair. Jr.. the Free Soil leader OF
Missouri. who was also MEMBER OF
Congress, general commanding the
Seventeenth Corps of Sherman's army
and afterward Democratic nominee fos
Vice. President on the Seymour ticket
Born I'm Kentucky.
Mrs Lee was born at Frankfort, KY.
June 20, 1915 and came to Washington
as child with her father, Francis P
Blair, Sr., editor of Andrew Jackson's
political organ, The Globe. She hao
much of her fathers and mothers tai
emit and sympathy. and soon became
great favorite of "Old Hickory" She
was a delicate child, and General Jack
son had her live at the White House
one winter and until the cellar of the
newly acquired Blair house could b'
drained This intimacy with the ole
general gave her the greatest respec
for his character, and above all for hi:
tenderness and Difference toward Wo
men. She copied many papers for him
and always said that the spelling wa
remarkably bad, but the force an'
clearness were all that could have beef
expected from a man of his vigorous
mind and decisive nature. She wa
thus brought up in caucus" as he
father put II, and learned to weigh pc
litical opinions and to keep politica
secrets.
Jackson's Corncob Pipe.
1t was a habit of General Jackson t
smoke a corncob pipe, and he had a new
one every day To fill the old gen
erals corncob pipe and sit near during
an evening discussion between him AM
her father, was one of the privileges o
this bright and sympathetic child. ant
she was emphatic in saying that sh'
never heard an oath or profane wore
from General Jacksons lips and neve
heard him use the expression so com
monty attributed to him, by the Eter
nal"
Mrs Lee was a lifelong member o
st Johns Church, when young singing
in the choir and working for the new
organ" which has been supplanted b!
second new organ these many years
Frequently in passing from her hous'
opposite the War Department to st
Johns Church by the Mills statue o
General Jackson in Lafayette Park
would she comment upon the errors o.
history and pictures and monuments
setting forth the viewpoint of the au
thor, painter, or sculptor, rather thar
the event or person sought to be de
scribed
General Jackson. she said. was an ad
mirer of a quiet thoroughbred horse
and detested anything like the pranc
ing Percheron upon which the sculpto
Mills has fixed him in bronze. Thi
horse, she thought, is as far from tn
real taste in horses of General jackson
as the personal character the Whig
and many subsequent historians attrib
uted to him, with fondness for oath
and truculent conceit. is from the rea
! jackson, courageous leader, firm sol
der, defender of the republic, and love
| faithful to one woman and her mem
| DRY.
Called Her ''The Little Democrat"
THE Little Democrat" as Miss Blai
was facetiously described in Washing
| ton society, was conscious of the slur
cast on Jackson by the Wings. espe
cially as her family had moved int
| Washington from Kentucky. and. in ad
dition to being Democrats, were sub
ject TO the opprobrious epithet o
| western" or frontier people. He
mother, Mrs. Blair. was a woman o
rare beauty and vigorous mind, ant
| one of the Wing slurs was that she wa