FRANKLIN, Tenn. — The grandson of the nation's tenth president has died.
You read that right.
Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr., grandson of former President John Tyler, passed away in Tennessee September 26, 2020 at the age of 95.
His lineage is owed to both his father and grandfather having children later in life and provides a lesson of the relative youth of the United States.
John Tyler, who assumed the presidency with the death of William Henry Harrison in 1841, served just short of four years in the office. Nearly eight years after leaving the White House, his son Lyon Gardiner Tyler was born when the former president was in his 60s.
Lyon Gardiner Tyler was 70 years old when his son and namesake was born January 3, 1925.
While never seeking national political office, the youngest Tyler served his country as a naval officer in the Pacific during World War II, then later earned his law degree from the University of Virginia.
But Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr.'s passing doesn't bring to a close one of the more fascinating facts in U.S. politics. His younger brother, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, who was born in 1928, still lives in the family home in Charles City County Virginia. The residence, named the Sherwood Forest Plantation, was named by President Tyler when he moved to the land after leaving Washington.
