Last Known Civil War Widow Dies

Deja Tyla Hansen

News

12th January 2021

Jackson married Bolin as a teenager (Getty Images).

The Claim

Helen Jackson, the last known surviving widow of a Civil War veteran, has died.

News posted on

Emerging story

On January 8th, 2020, a Twitter user posted a tweet stating, “We lost a link to the past today. The last widow of a civil war veteran, Helen Jackson, died today, she was 101. They married when he was 93 and she was 17.”

Many people reacted with similar heartfelt reactions to the loss of Helen Jackson.

Misbar’s Analysis

It is not without sadness that Misbar finds this claim to be true. Helen Viola Jackson died on December 16, 2020 at age 101 in a nursing home in Missouri.

Jackson was the widow of James Bolin, a former private in the 14th Missouri Cavalry for the Union. The two met when Jackson was merely 17 years old and Bolin 93. During this time, she was his unpaid caretaker. Jackson stated that Bolin didn’t want to accept charity from her and instead offered her hand in marriage as “a way to provide for her future” with his pension.

Jackson accepted, and they got married in 1936 with a small ceremony. Only three years later, James Bolin died, but Jackson never filed for his pension. Instead, she committed herself to helping the church and community. She kept her marriage to Bolin a secret until 2017.

Throughout her life, Jackson was consistently recognized for giving back to her community. She was awarded several times with the first being the 2006 Cherry Blossom Medal – the first recipient to ever received this award. The award was intended to recognize individuals for their civic, faith, business, or patriotic contribution to their state and community.