Elizabeth Custer

Nearly 70 years old, Elizabeth Custer looking intently at President Taft from the far left, in an elegant dress and black hat, at the unveiling of a statue for George Custer in 1910 in Michigan.

Elizabeth ("Libbie") Custer (1842-1933) was the devoted wife of the disgraced Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, who led his cavalry into the slaughter at Custer's Last Stand.

Remarkably, after being widowed at age only 34, she then successfully wrote books to rehabilitate her late husband's reputation. President Teddy Roosevelt and others commended her and even her husband, and multiple movies and television shows have been made about her:

• They Died with their Boots On (1941), portrayed by Olivia de Havilland
• Custer of the West (1967), portrayed by Mary Ureby
• The Court Martial of George Armstrong Custer (1977), portrayed by Blythe Danner
• Son of the Morning Star (1991), portrayed by Rosanna Arquette

Soon after her husband's death, she made her personal correspondence available to writer Frederick Whittaker, who published a glowing biography merely six months after the fateful battle: A Complete Life of Gen. George A. Custer. Then "Libbie" Custer wrote acclaimed books about life in the Army, which further bolstered his image:

• Boots and Saddles (1885)
• Tenting on the Plains (1887)
• Following the Guidon (1890)

She objected to a statue of her husband that was erected at West Point, whereupon it was removed.