Emily Donelson was the niece of U.S. President Andrew Jackson. She served as White House hostess and First Lady of the United States. Unlike many girls of her day, Emily was afforded a formal education. She studied at Nashville Female Academy in Nashville, Tennessee. On September 16, 1824, seventeen-year-old Emily married A. J. Donelson. Donelson was Emily's first cousin and a ward of their mutual uncle and aunt, Andrew and Rachel Donelson Jackson. Emily's health began to deteriorate in 1836. In June of that year she went to recuperate at Poplar Grove (later termed Tulip Grove), her plantation adjacent to the Hermitage. Her health continued to decline and she died that December at the age of 29 of tuberculosis, making her the shortest-lived First Lady in American history.