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.
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.
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