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Millard Fillmore

Post Presidency

What personal tragedies befell Fillmore shortly after leaving office?

Fillmore’s wife, Abigail, developed pneumonia after attending the inauguration of her husband’s successor, Franklin Pierce. She died less than a month after leaving the White House in March 1953. Then, Fillmore’s only daughter, Mary, died at the age of twenty-two in 1854 from cholera. Historians believe that these deaths may have inspired Fillmore to make a return to the national political stage.