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Eleanor Roosevelt 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.
- Overview
- An early life of privilege and public service
- An unorthodox marriage
- A new kind of First Lady
- An advocate for human rights
- Eleanor Roosevelt’s legacy
A fierce advocate for the downtrodden during her husband’s presidency, Roosevelt spent her later years pushing for human rights—pioneering work that still resounds today.
Eleanor Roosevelt's groundbreaking role as First Lady—advocating for refugees during World War II and pushing for policies to help the poor—set the stage for her later humanitarian work as a delegate to the United Nations. Here, she addresses the UN General Assembly in 1947.
On the evening of April 20, 1933, a plane took off from a Washington, D.C. runway. Its precious cargo included two women in evening dresses, fur coats, and elbow-length gloves they had worn to a formal White House dinner just hours before. Now, pioneering aviatrix Amelia Earhart and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt were flying into the night sky.
The impulsive flight had come about when the two friends discussed Earhart’s fascination with flying at night. So they gathered a group of reporters, Earhart’s husband George Putnam, and Roosevelt’s brother, Hall Roosevelt, to take an impromptu flight to Baltimore. During the flight, Roosevelt spent time in the cockpit with Earhart and the plane’s captain, reveling in the novel view of the night sky. She even considered becoming a pilot herself, but her husband objected.
Anna Elizabeth Roosevelt was born in 1884 to a prestigious family: Her father’s brother was President Theodore Roosevelt, and she grew up in a world of wealth and privilege in New York. But Eleanor’s childhood was marked by tragedy: Her mother died of diphtheria when she was seven and her father, an alcoholic, died when she was nine, shortly after a suicide attempt brought on by delirium tremens. Eleanor was raised by her maternal grandmother, who kept her relatively isolated and fed her shyness and insecurity with strict discipline and exacting standards.
But education brought a teenaged Eleanor out of her shell and pointed toward a promising future. At a finishing school in England at the turn of the century, she learned social ease and independence. The school’s beloved headmistress, Marie Souvestre, instilled Eleanor with a sense of her duties to others. After making her social debut, she began to volunteer at the Rivington Street Settlement House in New York, where she worked as a teacher.
(Learn about Eleanor Roosevelt's life with your kids.)
In 1902, a chance encounter with her fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, led to a secret romance. The young couple married in 1905; Eleanor’s uncle, Teddy Roosevelt, gave her away at the altar. As a young wife and future mother of six children, Eleanor became half of an unconventional marriage that would last four decades.
The marriage was happy, but Eleanor was devastated when she discovered her husband’s affair with another woman in 1918. The couple almost divorced, but Franklin’s promising political career and his mother’s disapproval of the marriage’s dissolution prevented it. The couple’s friendly, supportive relationship continued, but the marriage was never the same. The partnership became, in the words of their son James, “an armed truce that endured until the day [Franklin] died.”
Another strain on the Roosevelts’ partnership was polio, which struck Franklin in 1921. The disease paralyzed his legs, and it took years to rehabilitate; though he eventually learned to walk short distances, he would need a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Disability was stigmatized at the time and he avoided being photographed in his wheelchair.
Eleanor encouraged her husband to pursue politics despite public stigma and remained supportive of his political career as his political star—and her profile—rose. But as a young wife whose husband had political aspirations, Eleanor was not entirely resigned to her role as her husband’s helpmate; she was ambiguous about sex and motherhood and determined to contribute to the world.
As he climbed from state senator to governor of New York and U.S. vice president, Eleanor found a sense of worth and purpose in the social causes that would propel her through the remainder of her life. She advocated for soldiers during World War I and later purchased a private girls’ school with two friends, where she served as associate principal. She also worked for the Democratic Party and the League of Women’s Voters and founded Val-Kill Industries, where local farmers supplemented their incomes by creating furniture and home goods.
But everything changed when Franklin won the presidency in 1932—the first of what would become a record-setting four terms. The presidency was a triumph for Franklin—and a tragedy for Eleanor, who reluctantly resigned from positions the administration felt to be a conflict of interest.
This was deeply frustrating to Eleanor, who was maddened by the traditional function of First Ladies as ornamental hostesses. “I knew what traditionally would lie before me,” she said later, “and I cannot say I was very pleased with the prospect. The turmoil in my heart and mind was rather great [the night of FDR’s election].”
And so, she decided to forge a new role all her own.
Left: Eleanor Roosevelt, wearing white hat, surveys the living conditions on a street in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on March 15, 1934. She's accompanied by Lorena Hickok (second from her right), who had resigned from the Associated Press in 1933 as the two women grew close.
AP
Right: The First Lady visits Camp Tera, where unemployed women socialized and learned clerical skills and housekeeping in upstate New York. Eleanor advocated for the creation of the camp—a counterpart to a New Deal program that put men to work in forestry and conservation.
As the Great Depression segued into World War II, the First Lady shifted her focus to boosting morale—both of Allied troops and on the home front—and helping the Europeans displaced by the conflict.
One of her most important wartime causes was that of the children displaced by the war in Europe. Eleanor advocated for a bill that would have allowed 20,000 German children into the country. When the bill failed, she formed a committee to help refugee children enter the U.S. with the help of temporary visitor visas. The U.S. Committee for the Care of European Children ultimately helped resettle 300 children, most of them Jewish, and raised funds for other efforts to help refugees.
(What does it mean to be a refugee?)
In April 1945, on the verge of victory in Europe, President Roosevelt died. But though Eleanor’s time in the White House was over, her humanitarian work was not.
The former First Lady would continue to espouse her favorite causes—and wade into political controversy—for the rest of her life. A noted opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment, she preferred the idea of legislation that protected women instead. She also engaged in a thorny public debate about federal funding for religious schools, sparring with Cardinal Spellman, who accused her of anti-Catholicism for her opposition to parochial schools obtaining federal funds.
She had long been an icon and a divisive figure—an inspiration for advocates of marginalized groups and a scapegoat for those who opposed her causes. But when Eleanor died in 1962 at age 78, tributes poured in from both sides of the aisle.
Eleanor y Franklin Roosevelt tuvieron seis hijos: Los Roosevelt y sus hijos en 1919. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1906-1975) [53] James Roosevelt II (1907-1991) [54] Franklin Roosevelt (1909) [55] Elliot Roosevelt (1910-1990) [56] Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. (1914-1988) [57] John Aspinwall Roosevelt II (1916-1981) [58]
- cargo establecido
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt with their first two children, 1908. Roosevelt and Franklin had six children: Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1906–1975) James Roosevelt II (1907–1991) Franklin Roosevelt (1909–1909) Elliott Roosevelt (1910–1990) Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. (1914–1988) John Aspinwall Roosevelt (1916–1981)
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- John F. Kennedy
Se conoce como « Discurso de las cuatro libertades » ( Four Freedoms Speech) el discurso del Estado de la Unión dirigido al Congreso por el presidente de los Estados Unidos Franklin D. Roosevelt el 6 de enero de 1941.
16 de nov. de 2009 · March | 17. Choose another date. 1905. Franklin Roosevelt marries Eleanor Roosevelt. Future president Franklin Delano Roosevelt weds his fifth cousin once removed, Eleanor...
On March 17, 1905, she married her fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and between 1906 and 1916, they became the parents of six children: Anna Eleanor (1906-75), James (1907-91), Franklin Delano, Jr. (1909), Elliott (1910-90), Franklin, Jr. (1914-88) and John (1916-81).
