America's first lady for an unprecedented 12 years, Eleanor Roosevelt collected a long list of contradictory labels over her lifetime.
Beginning life as both a child of privilege and the daughter of an alcoholic, she was an orphan by the age of 10. Eleanor's mother, Anna Hall Roosevelt, died suddenly of diphtheria at age 29 when the young girl was only 8. Two years later, acute alcoholism took her father, Elliott Roosevelt, the brother of 26th President Theodore Roosevelt, while housed in a sanitarium.
As the eldest child and only daughter of the couple, Eleanor promised her father she would look after her only remaining sibling, Hall Roosevelt and did take care of him until he, too, succumbed to alcoholism as an adult.
Eleanor's mother was considered to be beautiful. She called her only daughter "Granny" because of her ordinary, or plain, look. As the child grew to the height of 5 feet 11 inches, it only caused more ridicule from others.
Raised by her maternal grandmother, Mary Livingston Ludlow, Eleanor and Hall received private tutoring and she was sent to Allenswood Girl's Academy in Wimbledon Common, London, England. Upon returning, she became active in social reform, influenced by her uncle, the President.
At the age of 20, Eleanor caused a stir in the Roosevelt family when she accepted the marriage proposal of her fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a 22-year old Harvard graduate. Franklin's mother, Sara, attempted to stop the union but was unsuccessful. On March 17, 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt escorted his niece, Eleanor, down the aisle and into the arms of Franklin.
The couple had six children.
In the early days of their marriage, Franklin served in the New York State Senate, and was later appointed Assistant Navy Secretary during the Woodrow Wilson Administration at the onset of World War I. It was during this time Eleanor began her lifelong commitment to volunteerism and human rights work.
When Franklin contracted polio in 1921 and lost the use of his legs, it was his wife who encouraged him to remain in the political arena. While he sought therapeutic treatment with the help of his mistress Eleanor used that time to develop an independent career. The mistress was not unknown to Eleanor, nor was she the only one. Eleanor allowed the woman to attend to Franklin's personal needs, as it freed up her time for other important business.
Throughout the 1920s, Eleanor was involved with many women's organizations, as a board member or officer of The Women's City Club of New York, The Women's Trade Union League, Women's Division of the New York Sate Democratic Committee, The League of Women Voters, and the World Peace Movement.
When Franklin won the election for New York governor in 1929, Eleanor could often be seen in the soup kitchens of New York City, feeding those hit hard by the stock market crash.
In 1932 Franklin won the first of four Presidential elections.
Her first task as first lady of the nation was to visit with World War I veterans encamped in Washington D.C. to protest the broken promises of the Hoover Administration. Hoover had sent troops to disperse the camp. Eleanor drove herself there and sat among the protesters, listening to their concerns. The veterans noted the contrast, saying "Hoover sent the Army; Roosevelt sent his wife."
On March 6, 1933, Eleanor held the first of 348 press conferences designed to keep female reporters working during the Great Depression - as only media that employed women were invited.
Eleanor was a talented writer and had columns in many newspapers and magazines. One of those columns, titled "My Day" was written six days a week and was syndicated in 62 daily newspapers.
Eleanor had radio experience before moving into the White House. She continued the radio work and in 1937 NBC Radio signed her for $3,000 to produce 13 shows for them. In 1940 that increased to 26 broadcasts per year.
When Franklin launched The New Deal, a series of reform programs to help heal the wounds left by the Great Depression, Eleanor served as a liaison between the nation's citizens and the programs, touring the nation, often alone, without guards.
Beyond supporting programs that assisted women, she was a champion of African American people as well. At the 1938 Southern Conference for Human Welfare held in Birmingham, Alabama, she was so put out with the segregationists that she moved her chair into the aisle, between the "whites-only" and "colored-only" sections.
Eleanor followed up that act by resigning from the Daughters of the American Revolution after they refused to rent Constitution Hall to singer Marian Anderson. In response, she invited the singer to perform at the White House for the King and Queen of England.
Eleanor became the first white resident of Washington, D.C. to join the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Urban League and would later address the annual conventions of both organizations.
In 1941, Eleanor gave the Chi Omega award to fellow activist Carrie Chapman Catt for her selfless acts of promoting the rights of women in the U.S. and abroad.
In the years leading up to the World War II, Eleanor kept up her fast-paced schedule of writing and speaking.
On the day that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor - December 7, 1941 - she used her weekly radio show to calm and rally the nation for the days ahead.
She then insisted the White House be put on the same rationing system as the rest of the country, and she and staffers participated in air-raid drills and gas-mask training. A victory garden was planted on the south lawn. Her efforts inspired the nation to embrace volunteerism.
While supporting the war efforts, she was opposed to prejudice toward Japanese-Americans, warning against the "great hysteria against minority groups." Her activism led some to proclaim her "America's most controversial first lady."
As she lobbied for increasing roles for women and African Americans in the war effort, she learned of the high rate of job absenteeism among working mothers. So she advocated for government-sponsored child care.
Eleanor left the White House on April 23, 1945, 11 days after Franklin's death. She was quoted as saying "The story is over," but in truth it wasn't.
In December 1945, Franklin's predecessor, President Harry Truman, appointed Eleanor as the only woman among five American delegates to the newly formed United Nations.
As a member of the Social, Humanitarian and Culture Committee, Eleanor drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As the Human Rights Commission chair, she presented the document to the General Assembly on December 10, 1948. It passed.
Among the many awards and accolades she received, Eleanor was named the American Gallup Poll's "Most Admired Living Woman" 13 times between 1948 and 1961.
Her last official role was as chair of President John F. Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women. The last time Eleanor spoke before Congress, in April 1962, it was to support legislation that would guarantee gender pay equity.
Eleanor was diagnosed with aplastic anemia in 1962 after being struck by a car in New York City. A dormant case of tuberculosis in her bone marrow was triggered by a steroid treatment. She died at age 78 on November 7, 1962, at her Manhattan home. Flags lowered to half-staff throughout the world in her honor.
Adlai Stevenson, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, at her memorial service said of Eleanor: "What other single human being has touched and transformed the existence of so many? She would rather light a candle than curse the darkness and her glow has warmed the world." n