Elizabeth Anderson Donelson (maiden name: Martin) was born on August 27, 1815, in Tennessee to James and Catherine Martin. She married Meriwether Lewis Randolph on April 9, 1835, and their son Lewis was born the following year. Her husband died of bilious fever on September 24, 1837, and her son died two years later. She married Andrew Jackson Donelson on November 10, 1841, and they had at least four children: Daniel, born on December 2, 1842; Martin, born on June 26, 1847; Alexander, born on January 18, 1849; and Catherine, born on February 25, 1850. They lived in Davidson County, Tennessee, and her husband worked as a planter and Democratic politician. By 1850, they owned $47,000 of real estate. A decade later, their wealth had risen to $100,000 of real estate and $100,000 of personal property.
In April 1861, he declared that she “loved the Union. But the Union is gone, and forever, and I wept as each star left the field of blue.” Her husband died on June 26, 1871, and she died of illness in Bolivar County, Mississippi, on August 30, 1871.