Fanny Longfellow, wife of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow dies of burns suffered in her home

Francis "Fanny" Longfellow, wife of poet and Harvard professor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, suffered fatal burns when her dress caught fire at their home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  She died the next morning.  Longfellow was also burned about the hands and face while trying to save her and resorted later to growing his famous beard to cover these wounds.  Fanny was Longfellow's second wife, the love of his life, and the mother of his six children.  (By John Osborne)