Eleanor Roosevelt (born October 11, 1884, New York, New York, U.S.—died November 7, 1962, New York City, New York) was an American first lady (1933–45), the wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States, and a United Nations diplomat and humanitarian. She was, in her time, one of the world’s most widely admired and powerful women. Eleanor was the daughter of Elliott Roosevelt and Anna Hall Roosevelt and the niece of Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States. She grew up in a wealthy family that attached great value to community service. Both her parents died before she was 10, and she and her surviving brother (another brother died when she was 9) were raised by relatives. The death of Eleanor’s father, to whom she had been especially close, was very difficult for her. At age 15, Eleanor enrolled at Allenswood, a girls’ boarding school outside London, where she came under the influence of the French headmistress, Marie Souvestre. Souvestre’s intellectual curiosity and her taste for travel and excellence—in everything but sports—awakened similar interests in Eleanor, who later described her three years there as the happiest time of her life. Reluctantly, she returned to New York in the summer of 1902 to prepare for her “coming out” into society that winter. Following family tradition, she devoted time to community service, including teaching in a settlement house on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
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Eleanor Roosevelt
Soon after Eleanor returned to New York, Franklin Roosevelt, her distant cousin, began to court her, and they were married on March 17, 1905, in New York City. His taste for fun contrasted with her own seriousness, and she often commented on how he had to find companions in pleasure elsewhere. Between 1906 and 1916, Eleanor gave birth to six children, one of whom died in infancy.
After Franklin won a seat in the New York Senate in 1911, the family moved to Albany, where Eleanor was initiated into the job of political wife. When Franklin was appointed assistant secretary of the navy in 1913, the family moved to Washington, D.C., and Eleanor spent the next few years performing the social duties expected of an “official wife,” including attending formal parties and making social calls in the homes of other government officials. For the most part, she found these occasions tedious. Roosevelt was a member of the prominent and wealthy American Roosevelt and Livingston families and a niece of President Theodore Roosevelt. [8] She had an unhappy childhood, having suffered the deaths of both parents and one of her brothers at a young age. At 15, she attended Allenswood Boarding Academy in London and was deeply influenced by its founder and director, Marie Souvestre. Returning to the U.S., she married her fifth cousin once removed, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in 1905. Between 1906 and 1916, she gave birth to six children, one of whom died in infancy. The Roosevelts’ marriage became complicated after Eleanor discovered her husband’s affair with her social secretary, Lucy Mercer, in 1918. Due to mediation by her mother-in-law, Sara, who was a strong financial supporter of the family, the liaison was ended officially. [10] After that, both partners started to keep independent agendas, and Eleanor joined the Women’s Trade Union League and became active in the New York state Democratic Party.
The First Lady
Upon moving to the White House in 1933, Eleanor Roosevelt informed the nation that they should not expect their new first lady to be a symbol of elegance but rather “plain, ordinary Mrs. Roosevelt.” Despite this disclaimer, she showed herself to be an extraordinary First Lady.
In 1933, Mrs. Roosevelt became the first First Lady to hold her own press conference. In an attempt to afford equal time to women–who were traditionally barred from presidential press conferences–she allowed only female reporters to attend. In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to allow Marion Anderson, an African American singer, to perform in their auditorium. In protest, Mrs. Roosevelt resigned her membership in the DAR.
Throughout Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, Eleanor traveled extensively around the nation, visiting relief projects, surveying working and living conditions, and then reporting her observations to the President. She was called “the president‘s eyes, ears, and legs” and provided objective information to her husband. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States entered WWII, Mrs. Roosevelt made certain that the President did not abandon the goals he had put forth in the New Deal. She also exercised her own political and social influence.
Early Life
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born on October 11, 1884, in Manhattan, New York City, to socialites Anna Rebecca Hall and Elliott Roosevelt. From an early age, she preferred to be called by her middle name, Eleanor. Through her father, she was a niece of President Theodore Roosevelt. Through her mother, she was a niece of tennis champions Valentine Gill “Vallie” Hall III and Edward Ludlow Hall. Her mother nicknamed her “Granny” because she acted in such a serious manner as a child. Anna emotionally rejected Eleanor and was also somewhat ashamed of her daughter’s alleged “plainness.” Roosevelt had two younger brothers: Elliott Jr. and Hall. She also had a half brother, Elliott Roosevelt Mann, through her father’s affair with Katy Mann, a servant employed by the family. Roosevelt was born into a world of immense wealth and privilege, as her family was part of New York high society called the “swells.”.
After the deaths of her parents, Roosevelt was raised in the household of her maternal grandmother, Mary Livingston Ludlow Hall of the Livingston family in Tivoli, New York. As a child, she was insecure and starved for affection and considered herself the “ugly duckling.” However, Roosevelt wrote at 14 that one’s prospects in life were not totally dependent on physical beauty: “No matter how plain a woman may be, if truth and loyalty are stamped upon her face, all will be attracted to her. Roosevelt was tutored privately, and with the encouragement of her aunt Anna “Baima” Roosevelt, she was sent to Allenswood Academy at the age of 15, a private finishing school in Wimbledon, London, England, where she was educated from 1899 to 1902. The headmistress, Marie Souvestre, was a noted educator who sought to cultivate independent thinking in young women. Souvestre took a special interest in Roosevelt, who learned to speak French fluently and gained confidence. Roosevelt and Souvestre maintained a correspondence until March 1905, when Souvestre died, and after this, Roosevelt placed Souvestre’s portrait on her desk and brought her letters with her. Roosevelt’s first cousin, Corinne Douglas Robinson, whose first term at Allenswood overlapped with Roosevelt’s last, said that when she arrived at the school, Roosevelt was “‘everything’ at the school. She was beloved by everybody.
The “First Lady of the World”
After President Roosevelt’s death on April 12, 1945, Mrs. Roosevelt continued in her public life. President Truman appointed her to the United Nations General Assembly. She served as chair of the Human Rights Commission and worked tirelessly to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the General Assembly on December 10, 1948.
In 1953, Mrs. Roosevelt dutifully resigned from the United States Delegation to the United Nations so that incoming Republican President Dwight Eisenhower could fill the position with an appointee of his own choosing. She then volunteered her services to the American Association for the U.N. and was an American representative to the World Federation of the U.N. Associations. She later became the chair of the associations’ board of directors. She was reappointed to the United States Delegation to the U.N. by President Kennedy in 1961. Later, he appointed her to the National Advisory Committee of the Peace Corps and chair of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women. Mrs. Roosevelt became a recognized leader in promoting humanitarian efforts.
She was in great demand as a speaker and lecturer. Like her husband had done with radio, she also made effective use of the emerging technology of television. She was a prolific writer with many articles and books to her credit, including a multi-volume autobiography.
Eleanor Roosevelt Fast Facts
(1) BORN: October 11, 1884, in New York City
(2) PARENTS: Anna Hall and Elliott Roosevelt Her mother died when Eleanor was eight. Her father, younger brother of Theodore Roosevelt, died when she was ten.
(3) BROTHERS: Elliott Roosevelt, Jr. (1889-1893) [Gracie] Hall Roosevelt (1891-1941)
(4) EDUCATION: Tutored at home until 1899, Allenswood School, near London, England, 1899-1902
(5) MARRIED: Franklin D. Roosevelt (fifth cousin once removed), March 17, 1905 in New York City.
(6) CHILDREN: Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (May 3, 1906 – December 1, 1975); James Roosevelt (December 23, 1907 – August 13, 1990); Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. (March 18, 1909-November 8, 1909); Elliott Roosevelt (September 23, 1910 – October 27, 1990); Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. (August 17, 1914 – August 17, 1988)
(7) ACTIVITIES: Teacher at Tod hunter School for Girls in New York City; Co-founder of Val-Kill Industries; Lecturer, writer (including “My Day,” syndicated King Features newspaper column for newspaper from December 1935 until October 1962) United States delegate to United Nations General Assembly Chairman, Human Rights Commission Member of many educational, humanitarian, and political organizations
(8) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE: Brown hair, 5 feet 10 inches tall, blue eyes
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