Good Likeness

Local Couple Finds Niche Portraying Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln

Photography Provided

The phrase “Land of Lincoln” is typically associated with our neighboring state of Illinois, as the state’s official slogan. Although our 16th president did live in Illinois and is buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, he actually hails from Hodgenville, Kentucky.

Articles, essays, books, plays, television shows and movies have been written and produced about Lincoln, giving modern-day readers and audiences some insight into his life. Yet, wouldn’t it be something if you could meet “The Great Emancipator” in person? Although that’s impossible, you can meet two people who have embraced the life and legacy of Lincoln and his wife Mary. They are historic re-enactors, or historic entertainers as they call themselves, Larry and Mary Elliott.

The Elliotts live in the Springhurst community of Louisville and have been presenting programs as the president and first lady for years to school children, senior homes, libraries, festivals and a host of other groups across the country. They’ve even appeared as the Lincolns in the Bahamas.   

Larry seems to have been born for this lifestyle. Like Lincoln, he sports a beard with no mustache, he’s 6’4” and he weighs 180 pounds. His father’s side of the family has several connections to the Lincolns.   

“I was born in Louisville, but my link to Lincoln is my father, James Elliott,” he says. “That whole side of the family was born in Hodgenville. I know the town like the back of my hand. I’m going to be buried there along with my father, who was killed in the Korean War. My really fun link to Lincoln is that my great-great-great-grandmother was the midwife who delivered Abraham Lincoln on February 12, 1809.”

While growing up, Larry attended 13 different schools in Louisville, eventually graduating from Pleasure Ridge Park High School. He continued on to college and received his business degree in 1974 from the University of Kentucky. He went on to work as an insurance salesman and had a very successful career.

Larry has four sons (just as Lincoln and his wife did) from his marriage to his first wife, who was also named Mary. Both he and his current wife went through divorces, eventually meeting at Southeast Christian Church. They married in 1998. She has two children from her previous marriage, and they have nine grandchildren.

The Elliotts’ foray into portraying the Lincolns happened somewhat by accident.

“We were at our home in 2003 and Mary was on the computer,” Larry says. “She said, ‘There’s a look-alike contest down in Hodgenville. Why don’t you get an outfit and go down there and get into that contest?’”

Larry told Mary that he hadn’t seen his dad’s grave in 10 years, so he felt this would be a good opportunity to visit the town.

“I got a goofy-looking Halloween hat and tie, and thought there’d be maybe three or four people there as Lincoln,” he says.

Upon his arrival, he got in line with the other Lincolns. The Lincoln performer in front of him asked if he had a speech ready.

“I said, ‘I don’t have a speech,’” Larry says. “He said, ‘You need to have a three minute speech to perform.’”

Larry says he tried to walk away, but his neighbor who had accompanied him to the festival said, “You can do this. You’re from Hodgenville. Just get up there and say something about Abraham Lincoln.”

Larry admits he wasn’t prepared at all.

“All I knew was he’d freed the slaves and that he was the 16th president,” he says. “You’d think I’d know a lot more than that.”

When it was his turn to speak, Larry walked on stage, stood before the three judges and said, he confesses, something very inaccurate: “Vote for me and I will free the slaves.”

As he concluded his speech, he couldn’t help but notice that two of the judges rolled their eyes at what he had proclaimed.

“That was the last thing Lincoln would have ever said,” Larry says. “He was not an abolitionist. It was just bad.”

Yet all was not lost. One of the other Lincolns approached him and asked if he would like to join their group, the Association of Lincoln Presenters. Larry was a bit apprehensive and asked if he could give it some thought.

“I started studying about Lincoln and I couldn’t put the books down,” he says. “The man is a genius. He’s full of velvet when he needs to be and full of steel when he needs to be. He’s a tremendous leader. He saved the nation. He was born in a one-room, dirt-floor log cabin, and had one year of education – a day here and a day there. His mother could read and started to read to him when he was 6 years old in front of the fireplace at night.”

He did one of his first performances in front of his best friend Mike, and asked for his opinion. After receiving some brutally honest feedback from the man, who said it was ‘awful,’ Larry decided to up his game and took acting lessons to polish his performance skills. He also bought a very expensive, accurate costume for $2,000.

He says the rest is history. When he visits classrooms, especially upper grades, Larry focuses on common-core content for fifth grade and eighth grade.

“I really teach these kids important history,” he says. “I teach them about the American Revolutionary War, the Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, slavery, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and the Civil War. These kids will learn so much if they listen.”

A couple of years after he began performing, Larry approached Mary to see if she’d have interest in joining him on this unique journey. Mary was hesitant initially, but she eventually agreed to read about Mary Todd Lincoln and decide.

She later went to a Lincoln convention with Larry and thought, “These people are really nice.”

The next convention she was to attend was in Detroit, Michigan. She discovered she couldn’t attend the ball if she didn’t have a period-correct ball gown.

“I wasn’t going to be left out of the ball, so I had a dress made,” she says.

After attending this convention Mary began talking to people about the Lincolns, eventually becoming enamored of Mary Lincoln, and she decided to go all-in.   

“I fell in love with her character actually when a fellow Mary Lincoln presenter told me a story about when the Lincolns lived in Springfield,” she says. “Mary had an infant son and her neighbor across the street also had an infant. The mother became ill, so Mary Lincoln nursed the baby for her.”

Mary was touched by the story.

“It’s a very personal thing, feeding your child, but to be willing to help another person to feed their child, that’s really neat,” she says. “I thought ‘She’s OK.’”

Larry already had his Lincoln program in place, and Mary began pondering what they’d be able to present as a couple. They worked on writing a script about the story of the Lincolns’ lives. They now do a presentation in which Larry, as Abraham, talks about his childhood and then Mary, as Mary Lincoln, talks about hers.

“We talk about our educational years and how we met and got married, how he went on to become the president, our time during the Civil War, and then we end at Ford’s Theatre,” Mary says.

Their visits are filled with historic facts and information, but there are times when their encounters with students aren’t all studious.    

“One of the funniest things we’ve ever heard from a kid is when we did a program at an elementary school, and this is when Mary would come with me,” Larry says. “She’d have on her black period costuming. We were walking down a hallway and a first grader came toward us, holding his teacher’s hand. He saw us and said, ‘Look, there’s Abraham Lincoln – and a witch!’”

Another story comes from an encounter with another young student.

“One kid said to me not too long ago, ‘Oh, there’s Abradamn Lincoln!’” Larry says.

The Elliotts truly enjoy portraying the Lincolns, and love sharing knowledge about this fascinating couple with people of all ages and walks of life.

If you’d like more information about having the “Lincolns” appear at your school, venue or event, email Larry at larrylikelincoln@gmail.com, or Mary at marylikemary1@gmail.com.