[1] LeVert was born in Augusta, Georgia, and moved with her parents to Mobile, Alabama, in 1835, where she married Dr. Henry Strachey Le Vert in 1836.

Following her last European tour and return to the United States, she took on a role in the successful national campaign to purchase and restore Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington.

[2] Following the American Civil War, with her husband dead and much of her fortune gone, she returned to her birthplace of Georgia and embarked on an ultimately unsuccessful lecture tour.

[1] Octavia was taught at home by her mother and paternal grandmother in a variety of subjects, and she and Robert were also tutored in science and Latin by a Scottish teacher.

[1] When wit, and wine, and friends have met And laughter crowns the festive hour In vain I struggle to forget Still does my heart confess thy power And fondly turn to thee!

But Octavia, do not strive to rob My heart, of all that soothes its pain The mournful hope that every throb Will make it break for thee!

Historians and literary scholars believe that it was during one of these trips in the late 1820s that she encountered Edgar Allan Poe, with whom she continued correspondence until his death.

During this time she entertained numerous prominent people at her home, including Frederika Bremer, James Buchanan, Joseph Jefferson, Lajos Kossuth, and Alexander H. Stephens.

Her literary correspondents included Edwin Booth, Edward Everett, Millard Fillmore, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

[7] One of her closest friends, Lady Emmeline Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie, wrote several pages about her as Madame L. V___ in her book, Travels in the United States, following a visit to Mobile in 1850.

Noting two drawing room portraits of the lost Le Vert children in the home, she wrote that they suggested a poem that she included in the Mobile entry.

[3][9] Her visit to the former home of the Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto and seeing how well it had been preserved inspired her to join the cause of saving Washington's Mount Vernon estate in Virginia.

She joined the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association and was appointed as the fourth vice regent in 1858, serving until her death.

[1] It was widely known that she gladly received the news of the end of the war and then entertained occupying Union soldiers in her home following the surrender of Mobile.

She visited New York City and Washington, D.C., but eventually returned to her birth state of Georgia and attempted a lecture tour.