Eliza Violet Blair (née Gist; November 10, 1794 – July 5, 1877) was an American journalist and political hostess who developed a network of political figures which provided contacts for newspaper articles and editorials and to help build her husband's and son's careers.

Daughter Elizabeth Blair Lee was manager and directress of the Washington City Orphan Asylum.

Preston supported John C. Frémont and helped get him nominated as a presidential candidate for the Republican Party, to his wife's chagrin.

[3] The Gist family and their enslaved people moved from Virginia to Bourbon County, Kentucky[4] in the spring of 1793,[5] or 1794.

[11] Blair and her husband had farm land in the beginning of their marriage, but by 1820 they had bought property in a city in Franklin County, Kentucky.

[12] They had financial difficulties at times, which required them to borrow from family or friends, often securing the loans with the Blair's properties.

[13] Blair had six children between 1813 and 1821,[12] Four of whom lived to adulthood, Montgomery, Elizabeth (Lizzie), James, and Frank, Jr. Two daughters, Juliet and Laura, died as toddlers in 1816 and 1819.

[14] Elizabeth married Samuel Phillips Lee, rear admiral of United States Navy.

Among her charity work, Elizabeth was manager and directress of the Washington City Orphan Asylum (now Hillcrest Children and Family Center) for more than four decades.

James L. Blair was a lieutenant in the Navy, and he went to California and put the first steamboat on the Sacramento River and made a fortune.

Biographer Elbert B. Smith stated, "From its beginning, the Francis Preston Blair family was a clan united by strong feelings of love, trust, and pride.

[6] Politicians from Washington, D.C. sought the Blairs counsel, whose political viewpoints seated in Jacksonian principles, at their house in Silver Spring.

[6] Her husband supported John C. Frémont and helped get him nominated as a presidential candidate for the Republican Party after slavery was extended to western territories with the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854.

[6] During the Civil War, she cared for wounded soldiers and brought healthy food, medicine, and flowers, some men were treated in her home.

The funeral, which took place at the Blair homestead in Silver Spring, Maryland, was attended by President Rutherford B. Hayes, Attorney General Charles Devens, General Montgomery C. Meigs, Col. Wright Rives, Franklin Rives, and other friends and relatives from Maryland and Washington, D.C. She was buried at Rock Creek Cemetery next to her husband.