He was an American politician, best known for being the 99th Mayor of New York City for three terms from 1934 to 1945 as a Republican.
Background
He was born on December 11, 1882, in Greenwich Village, New York City, New York, United States.
His father, Achille La Guardia, was an army bandmaster and his mother, Irene Coen, a homemaker.
After an illness, Achille was discharged from the army and Fiorello was raised in Arizona until at age sixteen, in 1898, he and his mother moved to Budapest, Hungary.
Education
He graduated from the Dwight School, a private school on the Upper West Side of New York City.
Returning to New York City in 1906, he supported himself through law courses at New York University Law School by working as an interpreter on Ellis Island.
Career
He was admitted to the bar in 1910.
His career was unusual in that he first became prominent in national politics and then turned to local government. In 1914 he ran as a Republican candidate for U. S. Congress but lost. Entering politics as a Republican, he was appointed a deputy attorney general of New York State in 1915. In 1916 he won representing lower Manhattan. He resigned his seat in Congress on December 31, 1919.
In 1919, La Guardia was chosen to run as the Republican candidate for the office of President of the New York City Board of Aldermen.
With two brief interruptions, La Guardia would serve in Congress until 1932.
He campaigned for industrial regulations and against racist immigration policies.
He cosponsored the Norris–La Guardia Act of 1932 increasing labor's ability to conduct strikes.
Then in 1932 he lost his congressional seat to the Democratic landslide election that brought President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945; served 1933–45; see entry) into office.
More than 230, 000 workers were unemployed in New York and almost 20 percent were on relief.
La Guardia introduced the use of appointed experts to solve the various problems.
Short and stout, standing at only 5 feet 2 inches, he was called "The Little Flower, " a direct Italian translation of his first name.
In 1939 New York hosted the World's Fair with the theme of the World of Tomorrow.
In spring of 1941 with war approaching, Roosevelt appointed the highly popular and energetic La Guardia the director of the newly established Office of Civilian Defense (OCD).
For the next year, La Guardia tried to serve in the OCD position as well as mayor of New York.
As OCD director he created a large force of volunteers in all cities and towns to protect citizens and property from the possibilities of air raids or other wartime home front emergencies.
OCD was also charged with coordinating scrap metal drives and encouraging conservation of food, such as through the tending of victory gardens by thousands of households.
In his civilian defense capacity, La Guardia would regularly attend Cabinet meetings.
He also made regular shortwave radio broadcasts to Italy warning Italian citizens of the dangers of German dictator Adolf Hitler (1889–1945).
La Guardia became one of the most familiar names in America.
Though the target of much criticism while director of the Office of Civilian Defense (OCD), Fiorello La Guardia saw much progress made on home front preparedness for war during his time in that position. In 1941 the OCD published Handbook for Air Raid Wardens.
It also published the Handbook for First Aid in cooperation with the American Red Cross.
By the end of January 1942, only eight months after the OCD was created, some 8, 478 local civilian defense councils were established in many towns and cities.
In all, more than five million volunteers worked in civilian defense.
La Guardia also encouraged local civilian defense organizations to publish guides.
Two months before Pearl Harbor, a New York civilian defense organization published a handbook titled The Air Raid Protection (A. R. P. ) Organization and the Queens Civilian Defense Volunteer Office in New York City published a one-page leaflet titled "What to Do in an Air Raid. "
Much of the home front did not want to hear about going to war throughout most of 1941.
As time passed, it became clearer he could not effectively do both.
In the fall of 1941 La Guardia barely won reelection as mayor. In addition, conflicts arose between President Roosevelt and La Guardia over the emphasis of certain programs within the OCD.
Also, the personalities of La Guardia and Eleanor Roosevelt clashed.
La Guardia had an energetic flair for the dramatic while Eleanor had a much quieter and calm manner. La Guardia and Eleanor did have some effective moments together.
On December 8, 1941, the day after the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, La Guardia and Eleanor flew to the West Coast.
Their intent was to better organize the OCD volunteer program while calming fears among citizens of further attacks. However, the OCD remained under fire from Congress into 1942.
First Eleanor and then La Guardia resigned from OCD in February 1942.
La Guardia refocused on his duties as mayor of New York and guided home front activities in that major city.
In addition, La Guardia still wanted a larger national war role.
La Guardia was bitterly disappointed. In 1946 La Guardia chose not to run for a fourth term as New York mayor.
In 1946 La Guardia accepted a position as director of the new United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration to help in postwar recovery in Europe and elsewhere.
However, his health was failing owing to his energetic contributions to the home front war effort.
He died of pancreatic cancer in his home at 5020 Goodridge Avenue, in the Riverdale section of The Bronx on September 20, 1947, aged 64.
Religion
Fiorello La Guardia was raised an Episcopalian and practiced that religion all his life.
Politics
For more than a decade, Congressman La Guardia fought against censorship, prohibition, racism, imperialism, the exploitation of labor, and the pro-business policies of the majority of the Republican Party.
Connections
La Guardia married twice. His first wife was Thea Almerigotti, an Istrian immigrant, whom he married on March 8, 1919. In June 1920 they had a daughter, Fioretta Thea, who died May 9, 1921, of spinal meningitis. His first wife died of tuberculosis on November 29, 1921, at the age of 26.
In 1929 he married Marie Fisher (1895–1984) who had been his secretary while in Congress; they adopted two children, Eric Henry (born 1930) and Jean Marie (1928–62), the biological daughter of Thea's sister.