Print of James Buchanan, circa 1860

President James Buchanan and former United States Vice-President William Rufus King were bachelors. They were partial to one another. In fact, they were inseparable. To King their relationship was a “communion.”[1] President Andrew Jackson dubbed King “Miss Nancy.”[2] But another contemporary, who referred to King as “Aunt Fancy,” also called him Buchanan’s “better half.”[3]

Sources

1. Jonathan Katz, Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1976), 647 n. 37.

2. Katz, 647 n. 37.

3. Katz, 647 n. 37.