Clay, Virginia Tunstall (1825–1915)

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Clay, Virginia Tunstall (1825–1915)

American society leader and suffragist. Name variations: Mrs. Clement C. Clay; Virginia Caroline Tunstall Clay-Clopton; Virginia Tunstall Clopton. Born Virginia Caroline Tunstall, Jan 16, 1825, in Nash Co., North Carolina; died June 23, 1915, near Gurley, Alabama; dau. of Dr. Peyton Randolph Tunstall and Ann (Arrington) Tunstall (died 1828); graduate of Nashville Female Academy, 1840; m. Clement Claiborne Clay (US senator), Feb 1, 1843 (died 1882); m. David Clopton (Alabama Supreme Court justice), Nov 29, 1887 (died 1892); no children.

Was among the brightest figures in Washington society while husband served in the Senate; after husband was accused of complicity in Lincoln's assassination, successfully appealed to President Andrew Johnson for his release; became early advocate of woman suffrage in Alabama and served as president of Alabama Equal Rights Association (1896–1900). Her antebellum memoirs, which were put into narrative form by journalist Ada Sterling, were published as A Belle of the Fifties (1904).