Here’s Your Strange But True Factoid Of The Day.
(Courtesy of Dan Lehr at NewsChannel 9 in Chattanooga; I actually knew this little factoid, but earlier today Dan–one of my dearest friends from college–tweeted it and I remembered it again and how odd and interesting this really is and decided to share.)
John Tyler was born in 1790, a little more than a year after the United States became the United States by ratifying the Constitution. Tyler grew up in Virginia as a member of a proud family who could trace lineage back to the colony at Williamsburg. One of the heroes of the War of 1812, William Henry Harrison, selected Tyler to be his running mate, and won the election of 1840. When President Harrison died shortly after taking office in 1841, Tyler became the 10th President of the United States. He wasn’t really much of a President. The major accomplishment of his career in the White House was annexing the state of Texas to the union–which is why there’s a city in Big Tex called Tyler. His second year in office, the First Lady, Letitia Tyler, died of complications after having suffered a stroke years earlier. President Tyler ended up taking a second wife after leaving office. He was 56 by then. She was 26. Good on him. With his second wife, Julia, John Tyler had 7 more children very late in life.
Wacky factoid, coming up. Really. Promise.
One of his sons was a fellow named Lyon Tyler, who was born in 1853, when his father was 63 years old. Lyon Tyler had a personal life very similar to his father’s. Lyon’s first wife, Anne, passed away in 1921. Lyon Tyler was 69 years old. He married a much younger woman and had three children with her, including Lyon Jr. and Harrison Tyler, born in 1924 and 1928 respectively. (For his part, Lyon Senior lived to be 82 years old, passing away in 1835.)
Lyon Tyler, Jr. and Harrison Tyler are both still very much alive. They’re the grandsons of the 10th President of the United States, who was born in 1790.
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Popnarcotic 
Stu said,
January 25, 2012 at 2:27 pm
I hadn’t heard this before, but I love factoids like this. Thanks for posting it!
Chris said,
January 25, 2012 at 2:37 pm
There’s probably a lesson there, I guess. If you want to be remarrying women 30 or 40 years younger than you are when you’re in your elder years–and if you’re wanting to consummate that marriage–it’s good to have your own plantation in Virginia and stacks of money.