busy
Rachel (born Rachel Donelson) had been in an unhappy marriage with Captain Lewis Robards, a man said to be subject to irrational fits of jealous rage. The couple separated in 1790. Andrew Jackson arrived in Nashville in 1788 and lived as a boarder with Rachel's mother, Rachel Stockley Donelson. In 1791 Jackson and Rachel exchanged marriage vows in a ceremony after believing that Robards had obtained a divorce. However, the divorce had never been completed, making Rachel's marriage to Jackson technically bigamous and therefore invalid. After the divorce (the first in Kentucky history) was officially completed, Rachel and Jackson remarried in 1794.
The two were quite passionate for one another. In 1813 when Andy was off fighting the British en route to becoming the hero of the Battle of New Orleans, Rachel wrote to him, "Do not my Beloved Husband let the love of Country, fame and honor let you forgit you have me Without you I would think them all empty shadows You will say this is not the Language of a Patriot but it is the language of a Faithfull wife..."
During the election of 1828, Jackson's political opponents accused Rachel of being a bigamist. Despite the accusations, Jackson won by a margin of 178 to 83 in the electoral college. But the dirty campaign took a toll on poor Rachel. She had been having chest pains throughout the campaign, and she became aggravated by the personal attacks on her marriage. She became ill and died on December 22, 1828, just before the electoral ball for the new President.
When Rachel died, Jackson was inconsolable. He refused to believe she was actually dead and insisted that blankets be laid on her body in case she woke up and needed warmth. He built a tomb for her in her flower garden. One visitor to the Hermitage stated, "I have never seen anyone as enthusiastically fond of flowers as the General's Lady". According to his granddaughter, Rachel Jackson Lawrence, Jackson visited Rachel's grave every night at sunset. He hung her portrait at the foot of his bed so she would be the first thing he saw in the morning and the last thing he saw at night, and he once said, "Heaven will be no heaven for me if she is not there."
Jackson blamed his opposition for her death. He accused the John Quincy Adams campaign, and Henry Clay even more so, of causing her death, saying, "I can and do forgive all my enemies. But those vile wretches who have slandered her must look to God for mercy.
Jackson wrote his wife's epitaph, which reads as follows: "Here lie the remains of Mrs. Rachel Jackson, wife of President Jackson, who died December 22nd 1828, aged 61. Her face was fair, her person pleasing, her temper amiable, and her heart kind. She delighted in relieving the wants of her fellow-creatures,and cultivated that divine pleasure by the most liberal and unpretending methods. To the poor she was a benefactress; to the rich she was an example; to the wretched a comforter; to the prosperous an ornament. Her pity went hand in hand with her benevolence; and she thanked her Creator for being able to do good. A being so gentle and so virtuous, slander might wound but could not dishonor. Even death, when he tore her from the arms of her husband, could but transplant her to the bosom of her God."
In 1953 Hollywood made a movie about the Jackson's romance. It was called The President's Lady and starred future NRA President Charlton Heston as Jackson (long before he uttered the phrase "damn dirty apes") and the beautiful Susan Hayward as Rachel. I don't believe you can find it on DVD.