The long journey of Eliza Monroe Hay
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In the winter of 1840, Eliza Monroe Hay was destitute and alone in the city of Paris. The daughter of President James Monroe, she often fulfilled the role of First Lady through her mother’s illnesses. As the story goes, she was a firebrand who abandoned her family to live the rest of her life in France.
But now, thanks to the work of author Barbara VornDick, we know that’s not the real story. In a short span of time, Eliza lost her parents, her husband, and her only daughter. Her family disinherited her and her wealthy son-in-law may have cut her off from seeing her grandchildren.
At the end of her life she had but a few items to her name and was begging for a place to stay. When she died in Paris, an American ambassador voluntarily paid for her burial at the Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Eliza Monroe Hay’s grave at Père Lachaise Cemetery, from Historic Fredericksburg Foundation
But her plot in the cemetery was not permanent. Graves are merely rented there, and without payment the cemetery was prepared to dig up her remains and pile them with other bones in an ossuary.
Barbara VornDick had spent years researching Eliza when she found this out, and she was determined to bring Eliza home. In our latest episode she describes the massive hurdles she had to to jump through to make this happen, and how she felt when it finally did.
On Thursday, October 25, 2025, after a very long journey, Eliza is being reinterred at her family’s plot in the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. It’s open to the public.
You can find out more about Eliza Monroe Hay in Barbara VornDick’s book Eliza’s True Story: The First Biography of President Monroe’s Eldest Daughter.
Listen to the full episode here:
