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Either way, Lucy quickly accompanied her parents to Spain. She returned four years later to their Dover, NH home, today a museum, and nursed her father until his death in 1873. Two years later Lucy married another former sweetheart and recent widower named William E. Chandler in a very private ceremony.

The late Abraham Lincoln, ironically, had appointed Chandler to a government job the same year he was assassinated by Booth. The couple shuttled between Washington and Concord, NH where Chandler was a lawyer, newspaper publisher, US Senator and Secretary of the Navy. A naval destroyer was named in his honor.

Lucy Hale Chandler gave birth to her only son – John P. Hale Chandler -- at age 43. She lived a respectable life as the wife of a politician and was active in civic causes. The couple raised funds to erect a monument to Lucy’s father that stands in front of the New Hampshire Capitol. Lucy died in 1915 and her husband followed two years later. If they ever spoke of John Wilkes Booth – or heard the never-ending whispers all around them -- no record remains.

Copyright © 2008 by J. Dennis Robinson. All rights reserved. Robinson is the owner of the popular web site SeacoastNH.com. His latest book is Strawbery Banke: A Seacoast Museum 400 Years in the Making.

KEY SOURCES: Good Brother, Bad Brother by James Cross Giblin (2005) and American Gothic by Gene Smith. (1992)