When the stock market crashed in October 1929, Governor Roosevelt immediately took action. The Presidents official schedule for June 5, 1941, reads in part: "1130: To Marguerite A. LeHands apartment, "1555-1740: Returned from Office to Study White House accompanied by Mrs. Johnson, "1740: To Marguerite A. LeHands apartment. It was not only that Eleanor, with her public achievements, personal tragedies, and flair for emotional undressing in public that would have warmed the heart of a latter-day talk-show host, could not help upstaging her; it was also that Lucy had a passion for privacy. Free subscription>>, Please consider a donation to help us keep this American treasure alive. the grandniece of Marguerite A. "No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. As Lucy realizes in my book, if you cannot accept imperfections, you cannot loveor, I would add, write history, biography, or fiction. Their daughter Anna tells of one evening in the White House when her mother so infuriated her father with her insistence that he address a sheaf of papers this high during the 20 minutes permitted for two very small cocktails that he flung the entire stack across the room. 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? As she had cherished Franklin, Sara showered affection on her grandchildren. His team included Louis Howe, Frances Perkins, Sam Rosenman, and of course Missy. The Sad Truth About Franklin And Eleanor Roosevelt's Marriage, Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage. "I am more your mother than your mother is" (via "No Ordinary Time"). But after she accidentally started a fire while lighting a cigarette the decision was made to send her home to Somerville, Massachusetts. Eleanor Roosevelt was 13 years into her marriage in 1918. 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. WebBeing obsessed with all things Roosevelt, I was thrilled to see a biography about Marguerite Missy LeHand, President Franklin D. Roosevelts personal secretary. Franklin and Eleanor were acquainted as children but came to romance and courtship as young adults in 1902. Mercer's friendship with Franklin Roosevelt was portrayed in the well-regarded TV mini-series Eleanor and Franklin, with Mercer portrayed by actress Linda Kelsey in the 1976 telecast, based on the best-selling biography of the same name by Eleanor's personal friend Joseph P. Lash, published in 1971. It is generally accepted that their relationship contained a romantic element, though scholars remain divided on whether the pair had a sexual relationship. In March 1942 Missy returned to the White House, a shadow of her former self, and moved back into her apartment on the third floor. [36] The two women, Mercer and Shoumatoff, immediately packed and left the cottage. 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. . Terms of Use: PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. His wife turned the White House over to a kitchen moralist who believed in plain food plainly prepared. Admirers sent the President wild game, of which he was particularly fond. [40][41] Rutherfurd is buried, along with her husband, in Green Township, New Jersey. Rumors of their affair spread like wildfire, as she always conveniently visited the White House and Hyde Park when Eleanor was out of town. 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. That is undoubtedly true. At a time when interest in their war just keeps on rising, why arent Americas World War II poets better remembered? [39], In 1947, Rutherfurd's sister Violetta committed suicide after her husband requested a divorce, and only a month later, on Christmas Day 1947, her mother Minnie died at age 84. Everywhere I looked for Lucy, there stood ER, larger than life, better than good, generous, high-minded, selfless. Yet after more than 10 years of marriage to a wife whom he would always respect and revere, he broke the rules of God and man and fell in love with another woman. And what was the future First Lady who would champion female equality doing opposing woman suffrage? Both branches of the Roosevelt family enjoyed wealth and privilege, yet the future first family were raised in markedly different circumstances. In addition, the relationship was covered in an episode of The President's documentaries for the PBS American Experience series on American history, as well as in the 2014 PBS miniseries The Roosevelts, directed by noted documentary film-maker Ken Burns, with an accompanying companion pictorial book by Geoffrey Perrett. 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. FDR's mother definitely wanted to keep her son a mother's boy, notes theNew York Review. Her relationship with FDR transcended her role as his secretary. Unlike a formerly unpublished letter from which I finally got permission to quote, it wasnt even classified. [5] According to historians Joseph Persico and Hazel Rowley, the affair between Mercer and Franklin likely began in 1916, when Eleanor and the children were vacationing at Campobello Island to avoid the summer heat, while Franklin remained in Washington, D.C.[6][7] In 1917, Franklin often included Mercer in his summer yachting parties, which Eleanor usually declined to attend. To fully understand why Missy LeHand had such influence in the White House it is important to look at her role during the years FDR was out of public view recovering from polio. Lucy Mercer could not have destroyed words written to her by one of the greatest men that ever livedto methe greatest, as she wrote his daughter after his death. related_content_links_0_open_in_new_window: related_content_links_1_open_in_new_window: related_content_links_2_open_in_new_window: related_content_links_3_open_in_new_window: related_content_links_4_open_in_new_window. 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. For 21 years, Marguerite LeHand was Franklin Delano Roosevelts secretary, nurse, cheerleader, adviser and possibly lover. It included Eleanor Roosevelt, Joe Kennedy, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, and 1,200 others. Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage. Missy grew to love this special place, and between the cruisesaboard the Larooco and the rehabilitation work at Warm Springs, Missy had become a critical part ofFDRs recovery efforts. The Gatekeeper: Missy LeHand, FDR, and the Untold Story of the Partnership That Defined a Presidency by Kathryn Smith finally gives Missy LeHand her due. During their engagement she wrote to her future husband, Sometimes I think that a womans moods are sent her just as a mans temptations are.. Shortly after Franklin and Eleanor's honeymoon, the whole family moved into a six-story home with two residences, according to Hazel Rowley's "Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage." If FDR was incapable of giving love, as many close to him believed, perhaps ER was equally incapable of receiving it. Both were dedicated to the idea of public service and worked to lead America out of the Great Depression. "[16] Eleanor later wrote, "I have the memory of an elephant. Winthrop Rutherfurd died in March 1944 after a long illness. [27] Historian/author Persico speculates that these letters may have been the cause of the 1927 nervous breakdown of Roosevelt's long-time unmarried first secretary Marguerite "Missy" LeHand (18981944), as LeHand was also reputedly in love with Roosevelt and no medical cause for her breakdown was found. Lucy Mercer had a contagious genius for living joyously. When Franklin finally broke the news to her two years later and added that they planned to marry, Sara was aghast; besides her own wish to keep her son to herself, Franklin and Eleanor were only 22 and 20, respectively. He paid all of her medical bills and changed his will so that half of the proceeds of his estate would go to help support her until she died. Although her official title as personal secretary was relatively humble, her power and influence were unparalleled. Three days a week he also came home to her social secretary, who laughed at his jokes and responded to his teasing and saw no reason to question his version of the way things had happened. The context of Eleanor's attitude is worth bearing in mind. 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] Furthermore, Eleanor's discovery of the relationship and subsequent discussion of divorce with Franklin's mother are portrayed in the fourth episode of the Showtime series "The First Lady." Aware of Rutherfurd's role in her parents' early marriage, Anna was at first angry that her father had put her in such a difficult position. By Paul M. Sparrow, Director, FDR Library. Once againEleanor did not care for the informal lifestyle and poverty stricken countryside, so Missy became thehostess for FDRs Warm Springs home. It was then that their relationship became more unconventional. She jogged into a car where the President was waiting behind the wheel. Olav confronts his wife about rumors of an affair. Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage. It is covered with a penciled note in the kind of cryptic shorthand I and most writers I know use when insight or inspiration strikes. [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. Missy lived in the Governors Mansion with the Roosevelts, and was part of the family in every way. FDR was not the sexual rake certain historians have made him out to be, but he did subscribe to the philosophy of the E. Y. Harburg song that would appear the year after his death, When Im not near the girl I love, I love the girl Im near. Missy once said he was really incapable of a personal friendship with anyone. Some found him almost sadistic. The Virginia Quarterly Reviewdescribes her as feeling rejected by her mother Anna Hall Roosevelt, who once told her that she must be good, as she was too plain to be anything else. Dont you think, Franklin, that you should answer it promptly? she urged. [14], In the end, Franklin appears to have told Mercer disingenuously that Eleanor was not willing to grant a divorce. But all three were grand enough to accommodate flaws. Attention and admiration were not things a young Franklin Roosevelt needed to worry about. WebThe Roosevelts were the ultimate power couple during the first half of the 20th century. WebWidely considered the first female presidential chief of staff, Marguerite "Missy" LeHand was the right-hand woman to Franklin Delano Roosevelt - both personally and professionally - for more than 20 years. "Your mother only bore you," she went so far as to tell young James Roosevelt. This knowledge did not keep him from straying again. 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. 'I have longed to have you with me,' he wrote in one letter from a cruise to Panama. Rowley also notes how many of those weeks Eleanor Roosevelt was with him: just four. Two weeks after the June collapse, LeHand suffered a major stroke and was never again able to speak intelligently. FDR relished rich foods and fine wines. At this stage in their marriage, the Roosevelts were also maintaining distance in their private lives. Partially paralyzed and barely able to speak she was confined to the hospital in D.C. She was later moved to Warm Springs, Georgia, to help in her recovery. WebBesides children and grandchildren, several other longtime aides and friends also lived in the White House during the Roosevelt years. Those were Groton idealstaught by youI try not to forget- and your words are still with me and with hundreds of other of us boys. The U-boat surfaced not far from where Martha was staying in Long Island that summer.. Kathryn Smiths new book goes a long way to correcting the error of omission that history has made regarding Missy LeHand. [11] Eleanor subsequently offered her husband a divorce. 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. Missys role as Gatekeeper gave her enormous influence in who the president spent time with. Per NPR's review of the book "Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage," she engineered a cruise with herself, Franklin, and Franklin's best friend that winter, a move that left Eleanor worried. Historian/author Persico speculates that these letters may have been the cause of the 1927 nervous breakdown of Roosevelt's long-time unmarried first secretary Marguerite "Missy" LeHand (18981944), as LeHand was also reputedly in love with Roosevelt and no medical cause for her breakdown was found. [28]
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