Darlene Corcoran, age 15, of Austin, Texas, for her question:

DID GEORGE WASHINGTON HAVE CHILDREN?

On  6, 1759, George Washington, who was to become the first president of the United States, married a widow named Mrs. Martha Dandridge Curtis. He was 26 years old and he immediately became the loving stepfather to Martha's two children.

George and Martha Washington had no children of their own.

The stepchildren were John "Jackie Parke Custis and Martha "Patsy" Parke Custis. Jackie was only 5 years old at the time he received a new stepfather, and Patsy was only 3 years old, so both children really considered George their only father.

Martha was eight months older than George.

Earlier, when George was only 20 years old, he fell in love with a 16 year old girl named Betsy Fauntleroy, the daughter of a Richmond, Va., planter and shipowner. George proposed to her at least twice. Each time he was refused. He sadly wrote in a journal that she had given a "cruel sentence."

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, in Westmoreland County, Virginia. He died at the age of 67 at Mount Vernon.