The offices, ambitions, and illnesses of Franklin Roosevelt saw him frequently away from home. FDR continued to have other affairs, including one with his secretary, Missy LeHand. WebThe Roosevelts were the ultimate power couple during the first half of the 20th century. Because it was not her looks but her extraordinary talent, commitment, and dedication that earned her the privilege to work by FDRs side for more than 20 years. Such infamously bad food was not the oversight of a woman too busy filling the stomachs of millions to worry about pleasing the palates of a few, or the result of an inbred disapproval of indulgence and aversion to pleasure. One afternoon while I was touring Val-Kill, the cottage in Hyde Park that ER set up for herself after she had given up the house shed originally built with her friends Nancy Cook and Marion Dickerman, I asked a noted Roosevelt scholar if he knew the reason for the rupture. The exact nature of LeHands relationship with FDR is debated by historians. #Roosevelts on Film - FDR Presidential Library & Museum I shared her frustration when FDR declined to make an antilynching law a top priority, and refused to open the door to the Jewish victims of Hitlers persecutions, but wasnt she sufficiently astute to appreciate the adage that to be a great statesman, one must first be a good politician? "[17] The incident marked a turning point in her life; disillusioned with her marriage, she became active in public life, and focused increasingly on her social work rather than her role as a wife.[18][19]. [36] The two women, Mercer and Shoumatoff, immediately packed and left the cottage. 'I have longed to have you with me,' he wrote in one letter from a cruise to Panama. The decision would have profound consequences for the nation. [1] Lucy had one sister, Violetta Carroll Mercer (18891947). Already getting in the party mood! While J. Edgar Hoovers FBI claimed credit for their quick arrests, the saboteurs plot was actually foiled from within: The groups leader, 39-year-old George Dasch (2nd from lower right in photo), called the FBI to volunteer their plans. She told a friend she had burned FDRs letters, though I do not believe that for a moment. The context of Eleanor's attitude is worth bearing in mind. She called the White House and her former assistant Grace Tully took a message for the President, but he did not call her back that day. Dasch and his partner Ernst Burger (lower right) received prison sentences; the others were sentenced to death. Her stress was a trigger for heart problems, say the series co-writers, adding that the medication LeHand took gave her mood swings, depression and anxiety. The remained with her until her death, and in 2010 they finally arrived at the FDR Library as the Grace Tully Collection. This week marks the 72nd anniversary of the death and subsequent funeral of President Franklin Roosevelt. When his half-nephew Taddy ran off with a woman from New Yorks Tenderloin district called Dutch Sadie, he wrote to his mother from Harvard that one can never again consider him a true Roosevelt. The years tempered his priggishness. According to the FDR Presidential Library and Museum, Franklin and Eleanor were acquainted as children but came to romance and courtship as young adults in 1902. The letters of Lorena Hickok, the AP reporter who became a government worker when her closeness to the White House compromised her professional objectivity, reveal a burning, and for a while reciprocated, passion for ER. But the siren call of political life drew FDR back into the arena and in 1928 he ran for Governor of New York and won. Roosevelt left Missy half of his $3 million estate. Soon after his death, Suckley wrote in her diary: 'He told me once that there was no one else with whom he could be so completely honest.'. WebBesides children and grandchildren, several other longtime aides and friends also lived in the White House during the Roosevelt years. I pitied Eleanor. Her relationship with her father was much warmer, but Elliott Roosevelt gradually succumbed to alcoholism. He always enjoyed other peoples discomfort, Averell Harriman Everywhere I looked for Lucy, there stood ER, larger than life, better than good, generous, high-minded, selfless. But with a World War raging Missys passing was soon lost in the swirl of news about battles, victories, and another presidential campaign. Rowley also notes how many of those weeks Eleanor Roosevelt was with him: just four. In this quiet domestic scene as the two had just been smiling at each other, Roosevelt suddenly placed his hand up on his forehead and temple, saying "I have a terrific headache," then slumped over losing consciousness. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that she wasn't privy to the courtship between Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, begun in 1902. Her relationship with Eleanor cooled when her mother learned Anna arranged Mercers clandestine visits, but the pair later co-hosted a radio discussion show. FDR expressed a longing for white asparagus. [28], In 1926, Roosevelt mailed Rutherfurd a copy of his first public lecture after his 1921 paralytic illness, privately dedicating it to her with an inscription. But if his need for company was prodigious, it could also be promiscuous. Over the years FDR would invest a good portion of his fortune into Warm Springs, and created the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation which raised millions of dollars for polio research. On February 11, 1920, Mercer became his second wife. That there was genuine affection between Franklin and Mercer is evident, however, as is the devastation the affair brought to Eleanor. FDR's Indispensable Right-Hand Woman Portrayed Unfairly Again. [34] When Eleanor discovered, shortly after Roosevelt's death, from some female cousins, of Anna's role in arranging these meetings, the relationship between Eleanor and Anna became strained and cool for some time. Just as I was discovering a darker side of ERs character, so a more melancholy aspect of FDRs life began to emerge. [39][44] When the news of the memoir's contents broke, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. (19141988), said that he had no knowledge of an affair between Rutherfurd and his father,[45] while Rutherfurd's daughter Barbara flatly denied that any such romance had occurred. Marguerite LeHand (U.S. National Park Service) For 21 years, Marguerite LeHand was Franklin Delano Roosevelts secretary, nurse, cheerleader, adviser and possibly lover. She was an exquisitely sensitive and engaging companion and later a constant and competent nurse to a husband who doted on her. Terms of Use: PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Eleanor did not enjoy or entirely approve of the bohemian lifestyle FDR was engaging in, fishing and drinking and frivolous pastimes, and so she spent little time onboard. According to William E. Leuchtenburg of UVA's Miller Center, Franklin was largely isolated on the family's Hyde Park estate in New York, educated by private tutors. Who was this woman who attracted the greatest man of her time and held him until he died, not in her arms, as gossip still has it, but close enough? Even after consenting to her son's getting married, Sara Delano Roosevelt continued to loom large in Franklin Roosevelt's life, something that Eleanor Roosevelt could hardly miss. She admitted later in life that "It did not come naturally to me to understand little children or to enjoy them." On June 4th, at a party in the White House, Missy collapsed, probably from a combination of a stroke and a heart attack. Opinion | FDRs private secretary who served also as his As she had cherished Franklin, Sara showered affection on her grandchildren. From initial encounters during the 1932 presidential campaign, Hickok would eventually take up residence in the White House near Eleanor's rooms. But these long separations also occurred after Eleanor discovered Franklin's affair in 1918, an event that significantly loosened her marital ties to her husband. (Mostly) FICTION: A similar telegram existed, but American intelligence never caught it nor implemented security measures based on it, say Atlantic Crossing co-writers; their research revealed the telegram became known only after the war. "I am more your mother than your mother is" (via "No Ordinary Time"). According to Joseph Alsop, a Roosevelt cousin and political columnist, ER had a downright ghastly childhood and youth, while FDR had an immensely happy childhood and a youth altogether comfortable and if anything overprotected. As a wedded couple, however, they encountered difficulties almost from the beginning, one of them in the bedroom. She had to, and J began to resent her for it. They mention her soft heart. Now closed to the public as part of the enlarged White House security zone, the Square has witnessed many historic moments over the last two centuries. And everyone from John D. Rockefeller to W. E. B. The year 1924 also introduced FDR to Warm Spring Georgia, where he would focus his efforts on findingan effective cure for polio and provide a world class rehabilitation clinic for its victims. A new PBS documentary based on a book he wrote shows why. [13] Persico also doubts that this was a factor, observing that Mercer's mother Minnie had divorced and remarried, and that the family had come to Roman Catholicism only recently. When the stock market crashed in October 1929, Governor Roosevelt immediately took action. It won't rain on our parade! As a result, practically everyone left the presidential presence convinced his own argument had won the day. and how much more must still be given this greedy world . He made no attempt to conceal his feelings about Missy.'. that it would be best if you answered it now? she insisted. She was, according to Jean Edward Smith's "FDR," the president's constant companion for 21 years, his attendant on excursions where Eleanor was not present, and the only one to refer to him with the pet name "F.D." And there were scores of others. Franklin Roosevelt marries Eleanor Roosevelt The affair lasted two years, with one of his friends posing as Mercer's escort. Harvey Shapiro, himself one of our most distinguished poets, examines a powerful and undervalued legacy. And every day they would gather for Childrens Hour and FDR would mix martinis or some other cocktail and they would drop the worlds woes and spend time gossiping, chatting, and generally having fun. Where Franklin believed that the war effort superseded civil liberties, Eleanor argued that wartime was when belief in the Bill of Rights most counted. . The wife of his aide Edwin ("Pa") Watson called him the loneliest man in the world. In 1943 FDR told his distant cousin and close companion Margaret Suckley, Im either Exhibit A or left completely alone.. . Missy arrived in Washington to much fanfare and excitement. She later commented, "He deserved a good time. FDR's affinity for the company of women was always well known and some historians dispute stories of his alleged affairs, saying his friendships never grew to become romances. FDR and Eleanor Roosevelts Children: Who Were They? As Lucy realizes in my book, if you cannot accept imperfections, you cannot loveor, I would add, write history, biography, or fiction. Missy LeHand Admirers compared her voice to velvet and swore her smile was radiant. Doris Kearn Goodwin counters in"No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt" that Franklin doted on his children when he could give them his time. The correspondent most frequently focused on the romance angle was Walter Trohan of the Chicago Tribune. In Trohans memoir Political Animals, he describes receiving a tip in the fall of 1941 that the Crown Princess was visiting [the Presidents country home] Hyde Park every weekend without being on the guest list. [20] Winthrop Rutherfurd had proposed to socialite Consuelo Vanderbilt (18771964) in 1896, only to see her social-climbing mother instead force her into marriage with Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough (18711934) (cousin to later British prime minister Winston Churchill). "[10], In 1918, Franklin went on a trip to Europe to inspect naval facilities for the war. On the rare occasions when she was less than that, ER owned up to her failings scrupulously. Besides such material concerns, Rowley believes that Franklin still genuinely loved Eleanor. His health had declined throughout World War II. He provided for her in his will, but she suffered a stroke in 1941 and predeceased him. But she did. Franklin's response was to tell his wife gently, she would say that she was upset now but would feel differently later and so excused himself from the conversation. Sign up to get the latest news on your favorite dramas and mysteries, as well as exclusive content, video, sweepstakes and more. FDR was convinced he had found a new form of therapy. Marguerite Missy LeHand (18981944) was born to an Irish family in Potsdam, New York. With Elliott Roosevelt deceased, Eleanor was given away at the wedding by her uncle. A military tribunal later found all eight men guilty. WebMissy LeHand was FDRs longtime personal secretary and confidante. It included Eleanor Roosevelt, Joe Kennedy, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, and 1,200 others. In a review for the Washington Post, Stacy Schiff details the first lady's long-term relationship with reporter Lorena Hickok. Kathryn Smiths new book goes a long way to correcting the error of omission that history has made regarding Missy LeHand. Since a thorough medical exam a year before, he had received increasingly more intensive care and concern from a young recently recruited private physician. Kathryn Smith is a biographer and author of The Gatekeeper: Missy LeHand, FDR and the Untold Story of the Partnership that Defined a Presidency (Simon &Schuster, 2016). This photo is from Jan. 20, 1936, Love nest: FDR took many of his close female friends whom he was rumored to be involved with romantically to his Hyde Park home in upsate New York. Goodwin writes in No Ordinary Time that it was disturbing for Missy to be replaced by another woman.. As I came to know Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, I began to shed my predilections and prejudices and admire the strength of her convictions, the delicacy of her principles, and the size of her heart. FACT: The American press wrote openly about the amount of time FDR spent with Martha, says series creator, director, co-writer and executive producer, Alexander Eik. She was dubbed FDRs Right Hand Woman and when Eleanor traveled Missy would act as the hostess for dinners and other social events. If Lucy Mercer had been a weaker, less generous-spirited woman, FDR might not have become one of Americas greatest Presidents.) Missy later told an interviewer that Albany was the hardest work I ever did (The Gatekeeper). Marguerite Alice "Missy" LeHand (September 13, 1896 July 31, 1944) was a private secretary to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) for 21 years. According to LeHand's biographer Kathryn Smith in The Gatekeeper, she eventually functioned as White House Chief of Staff, the only woman in American history to do so. [1] The pair is pictured in the Oval Office at the White House circa 1940, Lucy Mercer: The least disputed of Roosevelt's supposed affairs was with Lucy Mercer, his wife's social secretary when he was assistant secretary of the Navy in 1916. Later, his two doctors - called in soon after the event - said he had suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage. In an era when it was very difficult for women to rise to the highest levels of government, she was truly FDRs Right Hand Woman. Hopefully The Gatekeeper will finally put to rest the sexist gossip that Missy gained her power because she was FDRs mistress. When his daughter Anna was grown and newly divorced, she took up residence in the White House and became her father's confidante. Joseph Lash was a faithful intimate during ERs life and an excellent friend in the books he wrote about her after her death. Perhaps FDRs charm did mask an emotional iciness, and ERs high-mindedness did make her almost as hard on others as she was on herself, and Lucys ability to live a gilded life while one-third of the nation was ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished was unconscionable. On the other hand, her son James Roosevelt (quoted by Rowley) thought that his mother may have had an affair with her young bodyguard, the New York state trooper Earl Miller. But in 1960, when ER refused to come to the telephone because she suspected the caller wanted something from her, her surprised secretary asked if she didnt believe people could like her for herself. James realized even then what a cruel thing that was to say, but even Eleanor felt that the children were more Sara's than hers. During her childhood the family moved to Massachusetts, settling She left only a handful of letters and no diaries, or at least none that have come to light. The difference of several weeks would not seem important but for who else was in the White House at the time. Fact or Fiction: FDR's private secretary Missy LeHand suffered a sudden collapse at a White House dinner. They insisted every man she met fell in love with her. A novelist who has just spent several years with them tells a moving story of love: public and private, given and withheld, In the FDR Library in Hyde Park, among the effects of Anna Roosevelt Halsted, the only daughter of Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt, there is a scrap of yellowing paper, about four inches by five. Missy lived in the Governors Mansion with the Roosevelts, and was part of the family in every way. From Nazi saboteurs washing up near Marthas vacation home, to secretary Missy LeHands collapse and the press implying the President and Princess were an item, theres a ton of drama in Episode 6 of Atlantic Crossing. One Roosevelt son called her a lady to her fingertips. FDRs mother wrote to her daughter-in-law, Miss Mercer is here, she is so sweet and attractive and adores you, Eleanor. I could not believe FDR had sacrificed the complicated, redoubtable, and, in her youth, lovely ER for this saccharine Victorian clich. ", Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt shared a mutual respect and affection. The young FDR did not take socially unsanctioned sex lightly. 'The bottom dropped out of my world,' she later said. But this was FDRs first shot at national political office and he went at it with his trademark gusto. As told by Joseph P. Lash in "Eleanor and Roosevelt," after she had seen her husband's body, the first lady was told that her former secretary, Lucy Mercer, now Lucy Rutherfurd, had been with Franklin when he died. It takes place during the June 1939 weekend that the British king and queen visited Roosevelt at his upstate New York cottage in Hyde Park, where FDR was said to take a number of mistresses. She did not fight for jobs for the nations destitute, or decent homes for families living in automobiles, or safe consumer products, or rural electrification, or racial equality, or rearmament. Although her official title as personal secretary was relatively humble, her power and influence were unparalleled. After her husband's death in 1944, when the two began seeing each other more occasionally, Rutherfurd also arranged for her friend Elizabeth Shoumatoff (18881980), a well-known artist, to paint Roosevelt's portrait.[32]. The affair lasted 20 years, according to some, and it was cataloged in a book written by FDR's son Elliott, who said the relationship was common knowledge. A sexual dalliance would have risked a pregnancy that could derail Franklin's family and career and Mercer's reputation. [40][41] Rutherfurd is buried, along with her husband, in Green Township, New Jersey. Subscribe to the MASTERPIECE email newsletter for weekly show news, schedule updates, and features on shows including Tom Jones. Her parents squandered a fortune with stunning panache, and one morning she and her sister awakened to find they were stranded penniless at their convent school in Austria. [14], In the end, Franklin appears to have told Mercer disingenuously that Eleanor was not willing to grant a divorce. The demands Eleanor Roosevelt made on herself could take a fearful toll on others, especially her husband. He was physically fearless, but he could be emotionally craven. The two were from separate branches of the Roosevelt clan, fifth cousins once removed. When he arrived in May of 1932 the local Meriwether Vindicator became became the first newspaper to endorse FDR for president, and locals began calling his new home, the Little White House. Once againEleanor did not care for the informal lifestyle and poverty stricken countryside, so Missy became thehostess for FDRs Warm Springs home. They provided FDR with an important escape from the pressures of the White House, and their personal bonds allowed them to speak truth, sometimes uncomfortable truths, to the Boss. I was more intrigued than ever. Franklin D. Roosevelt (c. 1919) and Eleanor Roosevelt (1933), Marriage and continued contact with Roosevelt, Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough, his first memorable presidential inauguration, "Franklin Roosevelt Was Not Diplomatic as Wife", "FDR's Secret Love: How Roosevelt's lifelong affair might have changed the course of a century", "Paid Notice: Deaths KNOWLES, BARBARA RUTHERFURD", "MISS RUTHERFURD BECOMES FIANCEE; BETROTHED | Member of Noted Family WIll Be Wed to Robert Winthrop Knowles, Jr. of Boston", "MISS RUTHERFURD MARRIED IN AIKEN; Fermata School Graduate the Bride of Robert W. Knowles Jr., Former Service Man", "February 2011: FDR Letters to Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd", "Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Boettiger Halsted (1906-1975)", "New light on the revelations of Franklin Roosevelt's 30-year affection for Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd", Military history of the United States during World War II, Springwood birthplace, home, and gravesite, Little White House, Warm Springs, Georgia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lucy_Mercer_Rutherfurd&oldid=1152540330, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 30 April 2023, at 21:24. Rutherfurd and Shoumatoff, along with two female cousins, were sitting there as the artist worked on her painting of Roosevelt as he sat at a card table by the living room stone fireplace, fine-tuning a future speech and reading over some other papers on the early afternoon of April 12, 1945. She was also determined that he would do good. Both were dedicated to the idea of public service and worked to lead America out of the Great Depression. FACT: Though not as depicted in Atlantic Crossing. I became unpopular, Trohan continues. Marguerite (Missy) LeHand was FDRs longtime personal secretary and confidante. What should have been their day alone ended up with the two of them practically ignored. At the time, Theodore Roosevelt was still president of the United States and at the height of his popularity. Fierce opposition came from Franklin's political advisor, Louis Howe, and from his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt. Even during the terrible years when he was battling to walk again, he delighted in company. Everybody wants something, ER replied. See also "Miss LeHand: FDR's Influential and Largely Forgotten Assistant". The Bank Holiday excitement is a bit too much for some! There was no shortage of people eager to try. Because of her efforts, women as well as men had Civilian Conservation Corps camps, and children no longer drank tainted milk, and blacks got a share, if not a fair one, of the defense miracle that was wresting the nation out of the Depression and into World War II. When one of their children died in infancy, Eleanor fell into such deep mourning that she later wrote of feeling a bitterness toward her husband for a time. The Episode 6 scene of Roosevelt and Martha in a basement lockdown is fiction. She jogged into a car where the President was waiting behind the wheel. [42] Roosevelt's second private secretary Grace Tully (19001984), who had also been at Warm Springs at the time of his death, did briefly mention Rutherfurd's presence in F.D.R., My Boss, her 1949 memoir, but gave no further hint of the relationship. Tasked with bringing up the children, Eleanor Roosevelt struggled to relate to her brood. Months of medical treatments and intense therapy followed and Missy was one of the few who were allowed to see him at his Manhattan apartment during this time. WebThe Missy LeHand Archive, comprising some 1,400 pieces, is the most important grouping of original documents still in private hands from such a central figure in FDRs political and personal life. In the years before widespread birth control for women, sex was coupled with potential pregnancy, and the one surefire prevention abstinence was rarely appreciated by young husbands with healthy sexual appetites, as Franklin was. The annual parade was a fixture of New York even then, and the festivities outside reportedly drowned out the exchange of marriage vows. Dont you think, Franklin, that you should answer it promptly? she urged. But when the book was published, she denied the affair, even though Potter claimed she had reviewed the manuscript and never asked to have that information retracted. The least disputed of Roosevelt's supposed affairs, however, was with Lucy Mercer, his wife's social secretary when he was assistant secretary of the Navy in 1916. The story of Chicago in the nineteenth century is the story of the making of America, Donald L. Miller says. She was laid up in her bed for weeks, then transferred to a hospital. This eventually became the March of Dimes Foundation which funded the research that led to a polio vaccine in 1954. Home Movies Show the Private Lives of the Grace Tully described Missy as the Queen of the White House staff, and her authority was rarely challenged. Olav confronts his wife about rumors of an affair. The Sad Truth About Franklin And Eleanor Roosevelt's Marguerite LeHand, Personal Secretary to President FDR relished rich foods and fine wines. She was a devoted and successful mother to five stepchildren and one biological daughter, all of whom adored her. FDR himself was suffering from a range of medical problems during the spring of 1941 the pressure of the war in Europe was taking a toll. Moreover, when it comes to historical cover-ups, many FDR and ER partisans would like to bury Lucy Mercer along with the inconvenient prejudices of their youth. She spent long periods of time at the White House with him during the war years and they often visited his cottage in Hyde Park. I waded through the syrupy tributes in hope of a crumb of real insight. [3] The pair separated shortly after Lucy's birth, and Carroll became an alcoholic. That was a given. Biographer Hazel Rowley wrote (via Roll Call) that Franklin Roosevelt remained in his marriage after his affair with Lucy Mercer was discovered because he "still loved Eleanor. It is generally accepted that their relationship contained a romantic element, though scholars remain divided on whether the pair had a sexual relationship. Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949. you have breathed new life into its spiritand the fate of all that is good is in your dear blessed and capable hands. Still, she cannot help wishing for the soft life of joy & the world shut out.. "Your mother only bore you," she went so far as to tell young James Roosevelt. Their relationship was a complicated one, marked by numerous episodes of hardship and heartbreak until Franklin's death in 1945. Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage. In "Roosevelt in Retrospect," John Gunther claimsthat Franklin was often unaware when Eleanor was in the White House, and that he did not see the New York apartments his wife maintained until late in 1944. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelts evolving relationship with African Americans challenged her beliefs about herselfand the world she had been raised in. She expected her husband to do well. FDR And His Women - AMERICAN HERITAGE But while the two shared a broadly liberal vision of the United States, they had areas of strong political disagreement. During the four years I spent with Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt, I never stopped wondering at the imaginations of those two children of privilege who came to intuit hardship they had never endured. When FDR looked into Lucys eyes, he saw himself striding down Connecticut Avenue to the old State, War, and Navy Building, and loping across the sun-washed greens where hed played 18 holes of golf in the morning and another 18 in the afternoon, and doing a hundred things hed never given a thought to in the years before he was stricken. The loneliness of leadership is a truism. Missy LeHand, Roosevelts longtime aide. Unlike a formerly unpublished letter from which I finally got permission to quote, it wasnt even classified.
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