Varina Anne (Winnie) Davis

First Lady of the Confederate States of America

Biography#

On February 26, 1845, Jefferson Davis married for his second wife, Varina Banks Howell, daughter of William Howell of New Jersey, and his wife Margaret Kempe Howell of Natchez, Mississippi.

William Burr Howell was a son of Governor Richard Howell of New Jersey and his wife Keziah Burr Howell. Margaret Louisa Kempe’s father was Colonel James Kempe, an Irish gentleman who came to America after the Emmett Rebellion.