Sallie Ward

Sally Ward was born on September 29, 1827, in Scott County, Kentucky.[2][3][4] Her father, Col. Robert Johnson Ward, was a planter and lawyer who served as the Speaker of the Assembly of Kentucky.[1][3] Her mother, Emily Flournoy, was a native of Georgetown, Kentucky.[2][3]

Her paternal grandfather, William Ward, married Sally Johnson, a sister of Vice President Richard Mentor Johnson.[5] Her paternal uncle, Junius Richard Ward, resided at Ward Hall in Georgetown, Kentucky,[5] as well as the Junius R. Ward House in Erwin, Mississippi. On her maternal side, she was of Huguenot descent.[3] Her maternal grandfather, Major Matthew Flournoy, served in the American Revolutionary War.[6]

Ward grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, with her seven siblings.[2][3] She was educated in a French finishing school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1844.[2]

Ward was a Southern belle and socialite.[4] She spoke French and played several instruments.[2] She became one of the first women in the United States to wear cosmetics and wore daring outfits.[2] She organized one of the first proper-style dress balls in Kentucky.[4] She paved the way for wearing several types of dresses during a given society ball.[1] She married several times, a trend which later became widespread.[7]

Ward married her first husband, Timothy Bigelow Lawrence, the son of Abbott Lawrence, on December 5, 1849.[1][3] The wedding was attended by governors Robert P. Letcher, John J. Crittenden and Lazarus W. Powell, as well as George D. Prentice, the editor of the Louisville Journal.[1] They resided in Boston, Massachusetts, where she attended society balls.[3] They divorced in 1850 due to cultural differences.[2][3] In one last incident, she wore a dress resembling Amelia Bloomer's outfit at a ball in jest; but, her in-laws were not amused.[1][3]

Ward married Dr Robert P. Hunt, a Kentucky native, in 1852.[3][4] They resided in New Orleans, Louisiana, where they threw parties at the French Opera House.[3] They had two sons, Robert and John Wesley, and one daughter, Emily.[3] Their son John Wesley survived to adulthood.[3] Meanwhile, her husband served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, and he was killed in combat.[3] They separated when he joined the army, as she supported Abraham Lincoln.[4]

Ward married Vene P. Armstrong, a merchant, in the postbellum era.[1][4] After his death, she married her fourth husband, Major George F. Downs, a Kentucky native.[1] They resided at the Galt House, a hotel in Louisville.[3]

Her portrait was done by George Peter Alexander Healy.[8] It is now at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky.[8]

Ward died of a ruptured stomach ulcer on July 8, 1896, at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky.[3][4][6] She was buried at the Cave Hill Cemetery.[3] Her son, John Wesley Hunt, worked as the night editor of the New York World.[6]

• Sallie Ward at Find a Grave