- She was schooled first in Nashville, then at what is now Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, one of the very few institutions of higher learning available to women in the early 19th century.
1824 - James K. Polk had begun his first year's service in the Tennessee legislature when they were married on New Year's Day.
1831 - The Polks had no children of their own, but raised a nephew, Marshall Tate Polk as their personal ward.
1845 - She was First Lady of the United States.
1847 - After her husband's death, Mrs. Polk assumed guardianship of an orphaned niece, Sarah Polk Jetton, and raised the girl as her own.