Anna Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born at 56 West 37th Street in New York City on October 11, 1884, and died at 55 East 74th Street in Manhattan on November 7, 1962. Eleanor, the wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States. The "First Lady of the World" held the post from 1933 to 1945 during the Great Depression and World War II.
Born into a wealthy family, Eleanor was tutored privately prior to attending Allenswood Academy, a private finishing school near London, England, at the age of 15. Upon returning to the United States, she was introduced into New York society with a debutante party but chose the career path of a social worker, working in the slums of New York's East Side.
Eleanor met Franklin Delano Roosevelt, her fifth cousin, on a train to Tivoli, New York, in 1902. Sara Ann Delano, Franklin's mother, opposed the courtship so the two began a secret correspondence and romance. They became engaged on November 22, 1903 and married on St. Patrick's Day, March 17th, 1905. The wedding officiant was the Reverend Endicott Peabody, an Episcopal priest who had founded the Groton School attended by Franklin; President Theodore Roosevelt gave away the bride. The newlyweds honeymooned with a three-month tour of Europe in the summer of 1905. During their marriage, the couple had one daughter and five sons, one of whom died in infancy:
Born into a wealthy family, Eleanor was tutored privately prior to attending Allenswood Academy, a private finishing school near London, England, at the age of 15. Upon returning to the United States, she was introduced into New York society with a debutante party but chose the career path of a social worker, working in the slums of New York's East Side.
Students and Teachers of US History this is a video of Stanley and Christopher Klos presenting America's Four United Republics Curriculum at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. The December 2015 video was an impromptu capture by a member of the audience of Penn students, professors and guests that numbered about 200. - Click Here for more information
Eleanor met Franklin Delano Roosevelt, her fifth cousin, on a train to Tivoli, New York, in 1902. Sara Ann Delano, Franklin's mother, opposed the courtship so the two began a secret correspondence and romance. They became engaged on November 22, 1903 and married on St. Patrick's Day, March 17th, 1905. The wedding officiant was the Reverend Endicott Peabody, an Episcopal priest who had founded the Groton School attended by Franklin; President Theodore Roosevelt gave away the bride. The newlyweds honeymooned with a three-month tour of Europe in the summer of 1905. During their marriage, the couple had one daughter and five sons, one of whom died in infancy:
- Anna Eleanor (May 3, 1906 – December 1, 1975)
- James (December 23, 1907 – August 13, 1991)
- Franklin Delano, Jr. (March 18, 1909 – November 1, 1909)
- Elliott (September 23, 1910 – October 27, 1990)
- Franklin Delano, Jr. (August 17, 1914 – August 17, 1988)
- John Aspinwall II (March 13, 1916 – April 27, 1981)
Eleanor was also a political leader in her own right and a great aide to her husband in his roles first, as New York State Senator (1911-1913), and later, Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1913-1920). In 1919, she began to fundraise and work for the Women's Trade Union League. She focused on realizing the union goals of establishing a minimum wage, a 48 hour work week, and abolishing child labor.
In the 1920's, after the passage of the 20th Amendment, Eleanor became an influential leader in the New York State Democratic Committee, which greatly aided Franklin with Democratic women. During this period, Eleanor also taught English and history in New York City at the Todhunter School for Girls.
In the 1920's, after the passage of the 20th Amendment, Eleanor became an influential leader in the New York State Democratic Committee, which greatly aided Franklin with Democratic women. During this period, Eleanor also taught English and history in New York City at the Todhunter School for Girls.
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| Eilleen, Alexandra, Mariesha, and Kathleen Klos visiting the Roosevelt Memorial in Washington DC |
In the summer of 1920, Franklin Roosevelt resigned as Assistant Secretary of the Navy to pursue the Democratic nomination for Vice President. The 1920 Democratic National Convention chose Governor James M. Cox of Ohio, as their Presidential nominee and balanced the ticket with Roosevelt as their Vice President candidate. Roosevelt, at 38, was four years younger than his cousin Teddy had been when he obtained the same nomination from his party. Despite the defeat of the Cox-Roosevelt ticket by Republican Warren G. Harding, the Vice Presidential nomination nevertheless launched Franklin's national political star.
In the summer of 1921, while the family was vacationing at Campobello Island in Canada, Franklin was stricken with polio. With his legs now permanently paralyzed, Franklin's influential mother insisted that he retire from politics and become a country gentleman. Eleanor, however, thwarted Sara Ann Delano's designs and persuaded Franklin to remain in public service.
Maintaining their contacts, Franklin and Eleanor helped Alfred E. Smith, a Catholic, to win the election for governor of New York in 1922. In 1924 they remained loyal and supported the Democratic Governor's re-election bid against their popular cousin, Republican Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.
In 1928, Governor Alfred E. Smith, as the Democratic Party presidential nominee, recruited Roosevelt to run for New York governor. Franklin and Eleanor accepted the nomination, campaigned hard, and Roosevelt was narrowly elected by a one-percent margin. As a reform governor, Franklin established a number of new social programs that were championed by the New York First Lady. Eleanor also continued to teach upper-level college courses in literature and American history, three days a week.
In the 1930's, Eleanor developed very close relationship with Lorena Hickok, an Associated Press reporter, who covered her during the last months of the 1932 presidential campaign. According to biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin, she "fell madly in love with her," writing daily daily long letters to "Hick", who was planning to write a biography on the new First Lady. Lillian Faderman, Hazel Rowley and Maurine Beasley, all Roosevelt scholars, maintain that the friendship contained a sexual component. In rebuttal, Doris Faber, Hickok's biographer, insists that the numerous amorous phrases in the letters have misled historians.
Doris Kearns Goodwin, in her 1994 Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Roosevelts, wrote that "whether Hick and Eleanor went beyond kisses and hugs" could not be determined with certainty. Russell Baker, writing in the The New York Review of Books of two 2011 Roosevelt biographies proclaims, "That the Hickok relationship was indeed erotic now seems beyond dispute".
Although distressed that the sole precedent for the employment of former First Ladies had been to entertain, Eleanor never shirked that official duty, but far expanded her purview. Consequently, Hickok's biography, subtitled "Reluctant First Lady," depicts a woman who chose to travel to all parts of the country, deliver lectures and radio broadcasts, and express her political opinions forcefully with the utmost candor. The First Lady also became the first to have weekly press conferences and a syndicated newspaper column, entitled "My Day." According to Professor Emerita Maurine Beasley:
The My Day column gave behind-the-scenes glimpses of White House life and served as a platform from which the First Lady could state her personal views. The column was a mixture of political oratory, public relations for President Roosevelt's New Deal, and the perceptions of an individual playing a leading role in the drama of her time. During its first year, "My Day" addressed humanitarian concerns such as poverty, unemployment, conservation, and the role of women, but much of it could be read as ingenious political propaganda during an election year. The column gave the Roosevelt administration a highly flexible weapon in its political arsenal, and Mrs. Roosevelt and the President most certainly conferred on some of its contents. Numerous columns during the years of World War II contained patriotic messages, descriptions of Mrs. Roosevelt's travels to various war areas, letters from servicemen, and advice from the Office of War Information. Beyond its political overtones, "My Day" sent a series of mixed messages regarding the position of women in society. While the column failed to offer a role model of much meaning to the average woman, it nevertheless showed a middle-aged woman continually on the move, establishing a place in the competitive occupation of journalism, and defining a role for herself outside the customary boundaries of her position.
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| Typed Letter Signed by Eleanor Roosevelt to Walter White detailing the First Lady's lobbying efforts for federal action against lynchings, 19 March 1936. - Image courtesy of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Records. Lynching was undoubtedly the most terrible crime perpetrated by white supremacists against African Americans. From the late nineteenth century through the World War I years, hundreds of blacks were lynched in the South for a variety of alleged crimes, the most heinous of which was the alleged rape of white women. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other civil rights organizations tried unsuccessfully for many years to get a federal antil-ynching law passed. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) and Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes (1874-1952), a one-time president of the NAACP's Chicago chapter, were supportive of the organization's efforts, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) did not share their enthusiasm and believed that pressing for the NAACP's demands would endanger congressional support for his New Deal programs. In her March 1936 letter to Walter Francis White (1893-1955), who served as NAACP executive secretary (later director) from 1931 to 1955, Mrs. Roosevelt stated some of the arguments that were used by the president and others against passage of an anti-lynching bill. It is clear from this "personal and confidential" letter that Mrs. Roosevelt was searching for a tactful means for aiding the anti-lynching cause herself, and she suggested to White various methods for winning the goodwill of members of Congress. - Library of Congress. |
On several occasions, Eleanor publicly disagreed with her husband's policies. Her greatest failure, as First Lady, was the launching of Arthurdale, an experimental West Virginia community for the families of unemployed coal miners. On the triumphal side, the First Lady successfully advocated for expanded roles for women in the workplace, the civil rights of African Americans, and the fair treatment of Asian Americans, and championed the rights of World War II refugees.
Following her husband's death, she returned to a cottage at his Hyde Park estate lamenting, "the story is over." A year later, however, she full court pressed Congress to join and support the United Nations and became one of its first delegates. Serving as the first chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights, Eleanor oversaw the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Later, President John F. Kennedy appointed her to a Presidential Commission on the Status of Women.
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| Eleanor Roosevelt Sketch Abril Lamarque, 1904-1999, artist |
Eleanor Roosevelt died of cardiac failure at her Manhattan home at 55 East 74th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, on November 7, 1962, at the age of 78. On November 8th, a New York Times' obituary memorialized Mrs. Roosevelt, First Lady 12 Years, Often Called 'World's Most Admired Woman.' In 1999, a Gallup Pole ranked her 9th as the Most Admired Person of the Century:
1. Mother Teresa
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2. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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3. John F. Kennedy
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4. Albert Einstein
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5. Helen Keller
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6. Franklin D. Roosevelt
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7. Billy Graham
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8. Pope John Paul II
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9. Eleanor Roosevelt
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10. Winston Churchill
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11. Dwight Eisenhower
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12. Jacqueline Kennedy
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13. Mahatma Gandhi
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14. Nelson Mandela
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15. Ronald Reagan
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16. Henry Ford
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17. Bill Clinton
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18. Margaret Thatcher
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By: Stanley Yavneh Klos Edited by: Naomi Yavneh Klos, Ph.D.
The First United American Republic
Continental Congress of the United Colonies Presidents
Sept. 5, 1774 to July 1, 1776
Continental Congress of the United States Presidents July 2, 1776 to February 28, 1781
Commander-in-Chief United Colonies & States of America
George Washington: June 15, 1775 - December 23, 1783
The Third United American Republic
Presidents of the United States in Congress Assembled
March 1, 1781 to March 3, 1789
Presidents of the United States of America 
Chart Comparing Presidential Powers
of America's Four United Republics - Click Here
United Colonies and States First Ladies
1774-1788
Capitals of the United Colonies and States of America
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