Index

Index

Martha Washington
Abigail Adams
Martha Jefferson
Dolley Madison
Elizabeth Monroe
Louisa Adams
Rachel Jackson
Hannah Van Buren
Anna Harrison
Letitia Tyler
Julia Tyler
Sarah Polk
Abigail Fillmore
Jane Pierce
Harriet Lane Johnson
Mary Lincoln
Eliza Johnson
Julia Grant
Lucy Hayes
Lucretia Garfield
Ellen Arthur
Frances Cleveland
Caroline Harrison
Ida McKinley
Edith Roosevelt
Helen Taft
Ellen Wilson
Edith Wilson
Florence Harding
Grace Coolidge
Lou Hoover
Eleanor Roosevelt
Bess Truman
Mamie Eisenhower
Jacqueline Kennedy
Lady Bird Johnson
Pat Nixon
Betty Ford
Rosalynn Carter
Nancy Reagan
Barbara Bush
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Laura Bush
Michelle Obama



 

 

Eleanor Roosevelt
1933-1945

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born in New York City on October 11, 1884.
(Her maiden and married name were the same. Franklin Roosevelt was her fifth cousin.)
Her father was an alcoholic and was never home very much.

Both of her parents had died by time she was ten years old.

She grew to be almost six feet tall.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Library of Congress

Eleanor met Franklin while he was a student at Harvard.

They were married several years later on March 17, 1905 in New York City.

Eleanor's mother-in-law dominated her life. She decided where Eleanor would live and how her children should be brought up.

The Roosevelt's had six children:

  • Anna Eleanor
  • James
  • Franklin Delano, Jr. (Died in infancy.)
  • Elliot
  • Franklin Delano, Jr.
  • John Aspinwall

In 1910, Franklin won a seat in the New York Senate and they moved to Albany and away from her mother-in-law.

In 1921, Franklin was struck with polio and was paralyzed. Eleanor took care of him and worked hard on his elections. She thought he could bring the country out of the depression.

During her first year of being First Lady she traveled 38,000 miles to view the conditions of the common people in the U.S.

She wrote a monthly magazine column and a daily newspaper column, "My Day." She also wrote three books: "This is My Story," On My Own," and "The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt."

Eleanor also fought for the rights of African Americans. She defied the Daughters of the American Revolution by arranging for the black singer Marian Anderson to perform at the Lincoln Memorial.

She also visited some war zones during WWII.

In 1945, President Roosevelt died.

Harry Truman appointed her to work at the new United Nations.

On November 7, 1962, Eleanor died of a blood disease. She is buried beside her husband in Hyde Park in New York.


 

 

Visit our site on U.S. Presidents

 

 



 
First Ladies
 

Books and Websites

Books

Smithsonian Presidents and First Ladiesby James Barber and Amy Pastan.
First Ladies: Women Who Called The White House Home (First Ladies) by Beatrice Gormeley.

Websites

http://www.firstladies.org/ National First Ladies Library
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/058_flal.htmlLibrary of Congress, Images of the First Ladies

 

 

 

Comments and/or corrections should be sent to Jim at jim@anewadventure.org.

 

 

 

 

 

This page was last modified: January 19, 2012