Eleanor Roosevelt with her brothers Hall and Elliott. The late 1880s - early 1890s.
Gallery of Eleanor Roosevelt
1890
Eleanor Roosevelt and her father. The late 1880s - early 1890s.
Gallery of Eleanor Roosevelt
1898
Head shot of Eleanor Roosevelt, circa 1898.
Gallery of Eleanor Roosevelt
1900
Young Eleanor Roosevelt with a horse; she was a skilled and lifelong rider. Around 1900.
College/University
Career
Gallery of Eleanor Roosevelt
1905
New York City, New York, United States
Portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt posing in her wedding dress.
Gallery of Eleanor Roosevelt
1915
New York City, New York, United States
Eleanor Roosevelt (standing) looks over her daughter Anna, seated between Eleanor's grandmother Mary Hall (also known as Mrs. Valentine Hall) and her aunt Elizabeth Livingston Mortimer. The mid-1910s.
Gallery of Eleanor Roosevelt
1916
New York City, New York, United States
The Roosevelt family left to right: Elliot, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, Jr., James, wife Eleanor holding John, and Anna.
Gallery of Eleanor Roosevelt
1920
Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada
Eleanor Roosevelt sits at home on Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada, while Franklin D. Roosevelt is campaigning for the vice presidency in 1920.
Gallery of Eleanor Roosevelt
1930
New York City, New York, United States
New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor, with their two dogs.
Gallery of Eleanor Roosevelt
1932
United States
Eleanor Roosevelt serves food to unemployed women and their children.
Gallery of Eleanor Roosevelt
1933
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and wife of Chiang Kai Shek, Mei-ling Chiang, at the White House.
Gallery of Eleanor Roosevelt
1935
Detroit, Michigan, United States
First Lady at Detroit's Slum Clearance. Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the Chief Executive, talks to five-year-old Geraldine Walker at the ceremonies inaugurating the slum clearance in Detroit, Michigan.
Gallery of Eleanor Roosevelt
1935
Neffs, Ohio, United States
Mrs. Roosevelt Goes 2 1/2 Miles into Coal Mine. Wearing a miner's cap and accompanied by mine officials and representatives of the United Mine Workers, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt starts her two-and-a-half-mile trip into the heart of a drift coal mine at Neffs, Ohio, in a mine car regularly used for hauling coal, May 21. In the heart of the mine, the President's wife left the car and inspected the various underground sections of the mine. Adolph Pacifico, local president of the United Mine Workers, is on the left.
Gallery of Eleanor Roosevelt
1937
United States
First Lady Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt gazing out of the airplane window while knitting during a tour of the United States. Photo by Thomas D. Mcavoy.
Gallery of Eleanor Roosevelt
1937
Seattle, Washington, United States
Eleanor Roosevelt enjoys Christmas with her daughter Anna Roosevelt Boettiger, grandson Curtis Dall, and granddaughter Anna Dall in Seattle, Washington, United States. The late 1930s.
Gallery of Eleanor Roosevelt
1941
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States
Mrs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, also known as Eleanor Roosevelt, dressed for the third Inaugural Ball in a rosy-white gown. Photo by Edward Steichen.
Gallery of Eleanor Roosevelt
1941
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States
Portrait of American First Lady (and future United States Delegate to the United Nations) Eleanor Roosevelt, as she stands at a fireplace in the White House, Washington, D.C., 1941.
Gallery of Eleanor Roosevelt
1942
Washington, D.C., United States
Eleanor Roosevelt as she appeared before a committee investigating civilian defense, Washington, D.C., 1942. She is the assistant director of the Office of Civilian Defense.
Gallery of Eleanor Roosevelt
1947
Eleanor Roosevelt holds up a copy of "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights," circa 1947.
Gallery of Eleanor Roosevelt
1947
Wiltwyck School for Boys, Esopus, New York, United States
There is a gift for everyone at the Wiltwyck School for Boys as Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, with the aid of her daughter-in-law, Faye Emerson Roosevelt, hands out gifts at the former First Lady's annual Christmas party at the privately supported school of which she is the director. The nonpunitive schools care for children under the age of 12 committed by the New York City Children's Courts and Welfare Department as delinquent or neglected.
Gallery of Eleanor Roosevelt
1905
New York City, New York, United States
Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt as a young couple. They were married on March 17, 1905.
Achievements
Membership
Daughters of the American Revolution
Eleanor Roosevelt was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Alpha Kappa Alpha
Eleanor Roosevelt was made an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Eleanor Roosevelt (standing) looks over her daughter Anna, seated between Eleanor's grandmother Mary Hall (also known as Mrs. Valentine Hall) and her aunt Elizabeth Livingston Mortimer. The mid-1910s.
Eleanor Roosevelt sits at home on Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada, while Franklin D. Roosevelt is campaigning for the vice presidency in 1920.
First Lady at Detroit's Slum Clearance. Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the Chief Executive, talks to five-year-old Geraldine Walker at the ceremonies inaugurating the slum clearance in Detroit, Michigan.
Mrs. Roosevelt Goes 2 1/2 Miles into Coal Mine. Wearing a miner's cap and accompanied by mine officials and representatives of the United Mine Workers, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt starts her two-and-a-half-mile trip into the heart of a drift coal mine at Neffs, Ohio, in a mine car regularly used for hauling coal, May 21. In the heart of the mine, the President's wife left the car and inspected the various underground sections of the mine. Adolph Pacifico, local president of the United Mine Workers, is on the left.
Eleanor Roosevelt enjoys Christmas with her daughter Anna Roosevelt Boettiger, grandson Curtis Dall, and granddaughter Anna Dall in Seattle, Washington, United States. The late 1930s.
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States
Portrait of American First Lady (and future United States Delegate to the United Nations) Eleanor Roosevelt, as she stands at a fireplace in the White House, Washington, D.C., 1941.
Eleanor Roosevelt as she appeared before a committee investigating civilian defense, Washington, D.C., 1942. She is the assistant director of the Office of Civilian Defense.
Wiltwyck School for Boys, Esopus, New York, United States
There is a gift for everyone at the Wiltwyck School for Boys as Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, with the aid of her daughter-in-law, Faye Emerson Roosevelt, hands out gifts at the former First Lady's annual Christmas party at the privately supported school of which she is the director. The nonpunitive schools care for children under the age of 12 committed by the New York City Children's Courts and Welfare Department as delinquent or neglected.
When You Grow Up to Vote: How Our Government Works for You
(Eleanor Roosevelt’s book on citizenship for young people ...)
Eleanor Roosevelt’s book on citizenship for young people now revised and updated for a contemporary audience. In the voice of one of the most iconic and beloved political figures of the twentieth century comes a book on citizenship for the future voters of the twenty-first century. Eleanor Roosevelt published the original edition of When You Grow Up to Vote in 1932, the same year her husband was elected president. The new edition has updated information and back matter as well as fresh, bold art from award-winning artist Grace Lin. Beginning with government workers like firefighters and garbage collectors, and moving up through local government to the national stage, this book explains that the people in government work the voter. Fresh, contemporary, and even fun, When You Grow Up to Vote is the book parents and teachers need to talk to children about how our government is designed to work.
("Women, whether subtly or vociferously, have always been ...)
"Women, whether subtly or vociferously, have always been a tremendous power in the destiny of the world," Eleanor Roosevelt wrote in It's Up to the Women, her book of advice to women of all ages on every aspect of life. Written at the height of the Great Depression, she called on women particularly to do their part - cutting costs where needed, spending reasonably, and taking personal responsibility for keeping the economy going.
Whether it's the recommendation that working women take time for themselves in order to fully enjoy time spent with their families, recipes for cheap but wholesome home-cooked meals, or America's obligation to women as they take a leading role in the new social order, many of the opinions expressed here are as fresh as if they were written today.
("We will have to want Peace, want it enough to pay for it...)
"We will have to want Peace, want it enough to pay for it before it becomes an accepted rule." With these words, Mrs. Roosevelt concludes her appeal for peace on earth, goodwill to men.
During the past year, World Peace has seemed more difficult of achievement than ever before, despite the efforts of Leagues and Courts. This discouraging situation has inspired Mrs. Roosevelt, whose life is bound by special ties to the whole fabric of our country’s welfare, to express her own sincere beliefs on the subject. She has analyzed many peace plans and, as a result of her studies, presents her own suggestions as to how permanent peace can be brought about.
This is a thoughtful book, written by a woman who realizes that it is easier to keep out of situations which lead to war than it is to bring about peace once the war is going on. If we can dispassionately go over the difficulties which arise between conflicting interests within our own borders, we will be in a better position to understand and arbitrate the quarrels which lead to war among other nations.
(A wartime manifesto on the moral obligations of democrati...)
A wartime manifesto on the moral obligations of democratic citizens from the most influential first lady in American history.
With the threat of the Third Reich looming, Eleanor Roosevelt employs the history of human rights to establish the idea that at the core of democracy is a spiritual responsibility to other citizens. Roosevelt then calls on all Americans, especially the youth, to prioritize the well-being of others and have faith that their fellow citizens will protect them in return. She defines this trust between people as a trait of true democracy.
If You Ask Me: Essential Advice from Eleanor Roosevelt
(Experience the timeless wit and wisdom of Eleanor Rooseve...)
Experience the timeless wit and wisdom of Eleanor Roosevelt in this annotated collection of candid advice columns that she wrote for more than twenty years.
In 1941, Eleanor Roosevelt embarked on a new career as an advice columnist. She had already transformed the role of first lady with her regular press conferences, her activism on behalf of women, minorities, and youth, her lecture tours, and her syndicated newspaper column. When Ladies Home Journal offered her an advice column, she embraced it as yet another way for her to connect with the public. "If You Ask Me" quickly became a lifeline for Americans of all ages.
(Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt. She retells the tales...)
Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt. She retells the tales of her courtship with Franklin, the governorship, the election, and the presidency all leading up until the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
(This is the first book to tell the dramatic story of the ...)
This is the first book to tell the dramatic story of the United Nations in action for and with the youth of the world. Here is not the formal account of the accomplishments of specific committees, but rather the warm, human stories of those who have shared in the work of these many specialized agencies of the UN. In these unforgettable stories and pictures that have come from more than thirty-five countries - firsthand accounts sent back by UN teams everywhere - UNESCO, UNICEF, WHO, FAO, IRO take on lasting meaning as symbols of the UN at work.
(When Mrs. Roosevelt stepped from her plane in Lebanon, sh...)
When Mrs. Roosevelt stepped from her plane in Lebanon, she said simply: "I have come to learn." And it was her humility and charm, her eagerness to learn, which won the confidence of the Eastern people. That is why, traveling with her as we do in this book, we see not only the problems of the East, but the thrilling challenge, heroic purpose, and inspiring triumphs. Through her eyes, we can judge truly the hopes for democracy in the East. And we can guess how her own journey must have buttressed those hopes in nations where the power of personal example far outweighs the most eloquent political promises.
You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life
(One of the most beloved figures of the twentieth century,...)
One of the most beloved figures of the twentieth century, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt remains a role model for a life well-lived. At the age of seventy-six, Roosevelt penned this simple guide to living a fuller life. now back in print, You Learn by Living is a powerful volume of enduring commonsense ideas and heartfelt values. offering her own philosophy on living, Eleanor takes readers on a path to compassion, confidence, maturity, civic stewardship, and more. her keys to a fulfilling life?
This single-volume biography brings Eleanor Roosevelt into focus through her own words, illuminating the vanished world she grew up, her life with her political husband, and the post-war years when she worked to broaden cooperation and understanding at home and abroad.
Eleanor Roosevelt's Book of Common Sense Etiquette
(Drawing from her personal and professional experiences, R...)
Drawing from her personal and professional experiences, Roosevelt covers a broad range of topics, including business dealings and family affairs, writing letters and receiving guests, and entertaining at home and traveling abroad. Beginning with the necessity of good manners between husband and wife, she considers the importance of courtesy in society at large and the role all Americans play as ambassadors of democracy while visiting foreign countries. In an era of incivility, Eleanor Roosevelt’s Book of Common Sense Etiquette is more relevant than ever.
(It is characteristic that Eleanor Roosevelt, who was fond...)
It is characteristic that Eleanor Roosevelt, who was fondly acclaimed as the first lady of the world, should have had a particular affection for the season of peace and goodwill toward all men. She loved the writings about Christmas, to which she made her own contributions, and collected her favorites among them to share with others, which are now presented int his volume.
Tomorrow Is Now: It Is Today That We Must Create the World of the Future (Penguin Classics)
(As relevant and influential now as it was when first publ...)
As relevant and influential now as it was when first published in 1963, Tomorrow Is Now is Eleanor Roosevelt's manifesto and her final effort to move America toward the community she hoped it would become. In bold, blunt prose, one of the greatest First Ladies of American history traces her country's struggle to embrace democracy and presents her declaration against fear, timidity, complacency, and national arrogance. An open, unrestrained look into her mind and heart as well as a clarion call to action, Tomorrow Is Now is the work Eleanor Roosevelt willed herself to stay alive to finish writing. For this edition, former United States President Bill Clinton contributes a new foreword, and Roosevelt historian Allida Black provides an authoritative introduction focusing on Eleanor Roosevelt’s diplomatic career.
Eleanor Roosevelt was an American first lady and the wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States. She was a United Nations diplomat and humanitarian. She was, in her time, one of the world’s most widely admired and powerful women.
Background
Ethnicity:
Eleanor Roosevelt was of Dutch, English, and Irish descent.
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born on October 11, 1884, in New York City, New York, United States. Her father was Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt, President Theodore Roosevelt's younger brother and her mother was Anna Rebecca Hall, a member of the distinguished Livingston family.
Elliott Roosevelt suffered from acute alcoholism and narcotic addiction, perhaps as a result of a vaguely described "nervous sickness" first manifested when he was a young adult. Some speculate that it may have been epilepsy. At 30, he made a trip around the world, and his fellow shipmates were his fourth cousin James Roosevelt and his wife Sara Delano Roosevelt; he soon after served as godfather to their son Franklin who (after Elliott’s death) would become his son-in-law.
Between 1890 and 1891, during what was his third overseas trip, this time with his wife and two children at the time, his family committed Elliott Roosevelt to an asylum in France. A year later, his brother Theodore Roosevelt committed him to the Keeley Center in Dwight, Illinois in an effort to treat his alcohol addiction.
Given her seemingly excellent health, Anna Hall Roosevelt’s sudden death of diphtheria at only 29 years old was a shock to her family and a wide circle of New York society friends.
Within a period of just two years, Eleanor Roosevelt’s entire sense of family was decimated. Her mother died when she was eight years old. Her four-year-old brother died the following year. Her father died the year after that. A family of five was reduced to two. The emotional toll it would surely have taken on her can only be surmised. She was left orphaned by 9 years and 10 months old. She and her remaining sibling, a second brother Gracie Hall, known as "Hall" (his mother’s maiden name) became the ward of her maternal grandmother, a formidable woman who lived in the Hudson River Valley.
Education
Eleanor Roosevelt received private tutoring by Frederic Roser (approximately in 1889-1890). Roser provided lessons to children of wealthy New York families. Roosevelt’s mother hired Roser and his assistant, a Miss Tomes, to instruct Eleanor Roosevelt and several of her peers in a room on the upper floor of the Roosevelt home in New York, and the home of her mother’s family in Tivoli, New York, in the Hudson River Valley. Her maternal aunts who were alarmed to discover that Eleanor Roosevelt was unable to read had prompted the training. She was taught grammar, arithmetic, poetry, and English literature. Within a few years, she was conversant and able to write well not only French, but Italian, German, and Spanish.
Later Roosevelt studied at Convent School, Italy (approximately in 1890-1891). During the period that Roosevelt and her family lived in Italy, her father suffered another intense bout of alcoholism and was placed in a French asylum for recovery treatment. Her mother became depressed and, unable to cope with the crisis, placed Eleanor Roosevelt in a Convent School. Beyond this fact, little about the experience is known including what, if any, educational training she received there.
Roosevelt next attended the Allenswood Girl’s Academy, Wimbledon Common, London, England in 1898-1902. Run by Marie Souvestre, who Eleanor Roosevelt later identified as the first greatest influence on her educational and emotional development, she was taught French, German, Italian, English literature, composition, music, drawing, painting, and dance. Although the school did not offer classes in history, geography, and philosophy, Marie Souvestre privately directed Eleanor Roosevelt’s pursuit of these studies. Souvestre further took her as a traveling companion through France and Italy during school holiday breaks and opened up new worlds to her young student, including impoverished areas of the working-class, away from the typical tourist sights. Marie Souvestre also openly espoused political views that challenged the status quo, defending the rights of the working-class, an attitude that would greatly shape the later activism of Eleanor Roosevelt. She later called her three years at Allenswood Academy the "happiest years of my life." In later years, however, Eleanor Roosevelt reflected that the greatest regret of her life was her lack of a college education. Roosevelt’s formal education ended at age 18 when she returned to New York City and made her social debut at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
At age 18, Eleanor Roosevelt returned to New York with a fresh sense of confidence in herself and her abilities. She became involved in social service work, joined the Junior League, and taught at the Rivington Street Settlement House.
On March 17, 1905, she married her fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and between 1906 and 1916, they became the parents of six children. During this period, her public activities gave way to family concerns and her husband's political career. However, with American entry in World War I, she became active in the American Red Cross and in volunteer work in Navy hospitals. In 1921, Franklin Roosevelt was stricken with polio causing Roosevelt to become increasingly active in politics in part to help him maintain his interests but also to assert her own personality and goals. She participated in the League of Women Voters, joined the Women's Trade Union League, and worked for the Women's Division of the New York State Democratic Committee. She helped to establish Val-Kill Industries, a non-profit furniture factory in Hyde Park, New York and taught at the Todhunter School, a private girls' school in New York City.
Upon moving to the White House in 1933, Eleanor Roosevelt informed the nation that they should not expect their new first lady to be a symbol of elegance, but rather "plain, ordinary Mrs. Roosevelt." Despite this disclaimer, she showed herself to be an extraordinary First Lady.
In 1933, Roosevelt became the first, First Lady to hold her own press conference. In an attempt to afford equal time to women - who were traditionally barred from presidential press conferences - she allowed only female reporters to attend. In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to allow Marion Anderson, an African American singer, to perform in their auditorium. In protest, Roosevelt resigned her membership in the DAR.
Throughout Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency, Eleanor traveled extensively around the nation, visiting relief projects, surveying working and living conditions, and then reporting her observations to the President. She was called "the President's eyes, ears, and legs" and provided objective information to her husband. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States entered World War II, Roosevelt made certain that the President did not abandon the goals he had put forth in the New Deal. She also exercised her own political and social influence.
During the war, she served as Assistant Director of Civilian Defense from 1941 to 1942 and she visited England and the South Pacific to foster goodwill among the Allies and to boost the morale of United States servicemen overseas.
After President Roosevelt's death on April 12, 1945, Roosevelt continued in her public life. President Truman appointed her to the United Nations General Assembly. She served as chair of the Human Rights Commission and worked tirelessly to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was adopted by the General Assembly on December 10, 1948.
In 1953, Roosevelt dutifully resigned from the United States Delegation to the United Nations, so that incoming Republican President Dwight Eisenhower could fill the position with an appointee of his own choosing. She then volunteered her services to the American Association for the United Nations and was an American representative to the World Federation of the United Nations Associations. She later became the chair of the Associations' Board of Directors. She was reappointed to the United States Delegation to the United Nations by President Kennedy in 1961. Later he appointed her to the National Advisory Committee of the Peace Corps and chair of the President's Commission on the Status of Women. Roosevelt became a recognized leader in promoting humanitarian efforts.
Roosevelt was in great demand as a speaker and lecturer. Like her husband had done with radio, she also made effective use of the emerging technology of television. She was a prolific writer with many articles and books to her credit including a multi-volume autobiography.
In her later years, Roosevelt lived at Val-Kill in Hyde Park, New York. She also maintained an apartment in New York City. She died on November 7, 1962, and is buried alongside her husband in the Rose Garden of their estate at Hyde Park, now a national historic site.
Although Eleanor Roosevelt would come to learn and respect the tenets of many different Christian sects and other faiths, she remained steadfast in her belief in the teachings of the Episcopal Church into which she was born, baptized, and married. Towards the end of her life, she wrote about her belief that there must be "some going on" after physical death, although she stated that neither she nor any other person could know what form it took.
Politics
In the 1920s, she became active in Democratic Party politics and was also involved with such activist organizations as the Women’s Union Trade League and the League of Women Voters. All her further life was tightly connected with the Democratic Party.
Views
Eleanor Roosevelt’s commitment to civil rights only increased after she left the White House. She successfully backed an effort to create the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and worked as a board member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), among other civil rights organizations. She defied the threats of the Ku Klux Klan to deliver a speech to activists at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee and visited civil rights workers incarcerated for participating in protests.
Roosevelt criticized the Eisenhower Administration as being too passive in the civil rights struggle and helped fundraise for those civil rights activists who employed nonviolent civil disobedience, most notably doing so with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks to sustain the boycott of the Montgomery, Alabama bus system because it remained rigidly segregated. She also proved instrumental in helping to make permanent the wartime Fair Employment Practices Committee that outlawed racial discrimination in federal employment or that with federal contractors.
It was not just the rights of African-Americans that continued to concern her. Increasingly pro-labor, the former First Lady served as the co-chair of a fundraiser for striking union members, organized by the National Citizens Political Action Committee.
Eleanor Roosevelt testified the last time before Congress in April 1962 in support of legislation that would guarantee gender pay equity. She also came to eventually support the Equal Rights Amendment, dropping her previous reservations about it. Her last official role was as chair of President Kennedy’s Commission on the Status of Women, which she chaired, delivering its report in December 1961.
Quotations:
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be "damned if you do, and damned if you don't."
"Understanding is a two-way street."
"It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it."
"We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk."
"Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life."
"I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: "No good in a bed, but fine against a wall."
"If the use of leisure time is confined to looking at TV for a few extra hours every day, we will deteriorate as a people."
"If man is to be liberated to enjoy more leisure, he must also be prepared to enjoy this leisure fully and creatively."
"What we must learn to do is to create unbreakable bonds between the sciences and the humanities. We cannot procrastinate. The world of the future is in our making. Tomorrow is now."
"Example is the best lesson there is."
Membership
Eleanor Roosevelt was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She was also made an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Daughters of the American Revolution
,
United States
Alpha Kappa Alpha
,
United States
Personality
Eleanor Roosevelt is commonly held as an example of a highly successful person you hardly guessed to be an introvert. Many biographers (including herself) describe a severely shy and withdrawn young person who "came out of her shell" in her twenties to become a monumental public figure. And yet, this was a woman who gave 348 press conferences as First Lady, was a United Nations delegate, a human rights activist, a teacher, and a lecturer who averaged 150 speaking engagements a year throughout the 1950s. As a public figure with a history of shyness and reclusiveness, Eleanor Roosevelt has a story that complicates the idea that introversion and extroversion are dichotomous or the ends of a continuum between which we can locate our true personalities. Her life and career show, rather, how elements of introversion and extroversion can wax, wane, and intermingle over time and depending on environmental circumstances. Biographers have found in her story fertile ground for speculation about how she sublimated the angst of her unhappy childhood, troubled marriage, and difficulties in connecting with her own children to become a world-wide heroine of progressive causes.
Physical Characteristics:
Eleanor Roosevelt was five feet, eleven inches in height with dark blonde hair and blue eyes. Among those First Ladies whose physical height is known, Eleanor Roosevelt and Michelle Obama are believed to be the tallest, both chronicled as being five feet, eleven inches in height.
Quotes from others about the person
"I have lost more than a beloved friend. I have lost an inspiration. She would rather light candles than curse the darkness, and her glow has warmed the world." - Adlai Stevenson, in a eulogy in the United Nations General Assembly
"She [Roosevelt] thought of herself as an ugly duckling, but she walked in beauty in the ghettos of the world, bringing with her the reminder of her beloved St. Francis, "It is in the giving that we receive." And wherever she walked beauty was forever there." - Adlai Stevenson, addressing the Democratic National Convention, Atlantic City, New Jersey
Interests
horse riding, dancing
Philosophers & Thinkers
Saint Francis of Assisi
Politicians
Abraham Lincoln
Sport & Clubs
field hockey
Music & Bands
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Connections
On March 17, 1905, Eleanor Roosevelt married her fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and between 1906 and 1916, they became the parents of six children: Anna Eleanor, James, Franklin Delano, Jr., Elliott, Franklin, Jr., and John.