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 Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna
Eleanor Roosevelt was born in New York City on October
11, 1884, daughter of Anna Hall and Elliott Roosevelt, younger
brother of Theodore. When her mother died in 1892, the
children went to live with Grandmother Hall; her adored father
died only two years later. Attending a distinguished school in
England gave her, at 15, her first chance to develop
self-confidence among other girls.
Returning to America in 1902, Roosevelt worked
with poor immigrants in New York City’s settlement houses and
became a staunch advocate of workers’ rights.
In her circle of
friends was a distant cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They became
engaged in 1903 and were married in 1905, with her
uncle the President giving the bride away. Within eleven years
Eleanor bore six children; one son died in infancy. "I
suppose I was fitting pretty well into the pattern of
a fairly conventional, quiet, young society matron," she wrote later
in her autobiography.
In Albany, where Franklin served in the state
Senate from 1910 to 1913, Eleanor started her long career
as political helpmate. She gained a knowledge of Washington and
its ways while he served as Assistant Secretary of the
Navy. Although her public devotion never wavered, she was deeply
wounded by the discovery, in 1918, of her husband’s affair
with her social secretary, Lucy Mercer. Withdrawing from her husband,
Roosevelt threw her emotional energies into social causes and a
vast and eclectic assortment of friends.
When he was stricken
with poliomyelitis in 1921, she tended him devotedly. She became
active in the women's division of the State Democratic Committee
to keep his interest in politics alive. From his successful
campaign for governor in 1928 to the day of his
death, she became eyes and ears for him, a trusted
and tireless reporter.
When Mrs. Roosevelt came to the White House
in 1933, she understood social conditions better than any of
her predecessors and she transformed the role of First Lady
accordingly. Crisscrossing the country to observe firsthand the abysmal conditions
in urban slums and on failing farms, among blacks in
the deep South, and in coal mines, factories and prisons,
she emerged as the public conscience of the New Deal.
Nevertheless,
she never shirked official entertaining; she greeted thousands with charming
friendliness. She also broke precedent to hold press conferences, travel
to all parts of the country, give lectures and radio
broadcasts, and express her opinions candidly in a daily syndicated
newspaper column, "My Day."
This made her a tempting target
for political enemies but her integrity, her graciousness, and her
sincerity of purpose endeared her personally to many--from heads of
state to servicemen she visited abroad during World War II.
As she had written wistfully at 14: "...no matter how
plain a woman may be if truth & loyalty are
stamped upon her face all will be attracted to her...."
After
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s death, Mrs. Roosevelt became a delegate to
the United Nations. There, she fulfilled a long-held dream by
drafting and overseeing the passage of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights – an accomplishment many historians consider her finest.
Her final official appointment was to chair John F. Kennedy’s
Commission on the Status of Women, a post she held
until six months before her death, in November 1962.
Lionized in
her lifetime as “First Lady to the world”, Eleanor Roosevelt
overcame acute personal sorrow to become the most influential American
woman of her own or any other time. Her constant
work to improve poor and disenfranchised’s lot made her one
of the most loved--and for some years one of the
most reviled--women of her generation.
Sources:
Ladies’ Home Journal
National First Ladies' Library
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