George Armstrong Custer's death in 1876 at the Battle of the Little Bighorn left Elizabeth Bacon Custer a thirty-four-year-old widow whose debts greatly out-weighed her financial resources. By the time she died - fifty-seven years later, on Park Avenue - she had achieved economic security, recognition as an author and lecturer, and the respect of numerous public figures. Furthermore, she had built the Custer legend, an idealized image of her husband as "a boy's hero": a brilliant military commander, a solid Christian, a patriot, and a family man without personal failings.