ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (1884-1962)

by Susan Marie Frontczak

The phrase I’ve heard most often when asking people what they remember about Eleanor Roosevelt from her years in the White House is, “She sure was an ugly woman!” Or, when stated more mildly, “She certainly wasn’t very attractive.”  There are others:  “She was remarkable!” “My family hated her.” “My mother adored her.” “She was always on the go.” “She stuck her nose into everybody’s business.”  “She really cared about the poor.”  But whether people remember admiring her or despising her, many choose to remark on her looks. It must have been a commonly voiced opinion in her time.

Looks aside, a 1938 Gallup poll revealed that 67% approved of Eleanor Roosevelt’s conduct, 33% disapproved heartily. Nobody was neutral on the first lady.

Why so many comments about her appearance? Looks are easy to attack, and comments about her lack of beauty were hard to refute. It is more complex to censure what she stood for: Does a woman have a right to a career? A right to be politically active? Do a woman’s career or political activism jeopardize her first responsibility to her family, or can they help fulfill her and her family’s experience? And the hidden deeper question: What will I lose if I allow my fellow citizen – black, or Jewish, or immigrant, or poor, or female – equal access to some of the privileges I expect out of life?

In the 1920s Eleanor Roosevelt worked to advance minimum wage, maximum hours, laws against child labor, women's rights, union rights, women's representation in government, and world peace through a World Court. She continued to hail these causes in the 1930s and ‘40s while her husband was in office, adding civil rights and New Deal projects to her list. And after the war she chaired the UN committee that created the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – justifiably her most cherished achievement.

What if Eleanor Roosevelt had been beautiful? Might she have become just another stunning debutant? What if she hadn’t had to work so hard to develop self-confidence? Having floundered under a mother who didn’t know how to love a homely child, having lost both parents by the age of ten, having been raised in a family with unstable uncles that necessitated bolts on her bedroom door, she emerged under the tutelage of a remarkable finishing school teacher. But she still bore scars of self-doubt. Eventually she would inspire others with what she had had to learn herself: “You must do the thing that you think you cannot do.” Had she not struggled so, would she have developed into such a staunch, relentless, compassionate voice for the poor, the underprivileged, the segregated, the forgotten? 

And yet, Eleanor Roosevelt didn’t hope to be exalted any more than she wanted to be reviled. She simply wanted everyone to be treated decently and equally. She wanted people to become involved in their own communities, and active participants in our democracy. She wanted us to become as good as we could be. 

RECOMMENDED READING

Cook, Blanche Wiesen.  Eleanor Roosevelt, Volumes 1, and 2.  Penguin Books Vol 1, 1992; Vol 2, 1999.

Lash, Joseph P.  Eleanor and Franklin.  New American Library, 1971.

Roosevelt, Eleanor.  The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt.  Da Capo Press, 1992.

SUSAN MARIE FRONTCZAK

Susan Marie Frontczak has worked as a full time storyteller for sixteen years, bringing history and literature to life, creating stories from thin air, or honing personal experience into tales worth telling again and again. In her nine years as a Chautauquan, Susan Marie’s has given over 275 presentations as Marie Curie, Mary Shelley, and Eleanor Roosevelt across 24 of the United States, in Scotland and in Canada. Eleanor Roosevelt is the third Chautauqua presentation developed by Susan Marie. Susan Marie says her biggest challenge with Mrs. Roosevelt is to choose what pieces of her immense life to explore in any given presentation.

QUOTES BY ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”  This is My Story, 1937

"...all wars eventually act as boomerangs and the victor suffers as much as the vanquished." “My Day” article, February 7, 1939

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. … You must do the thing you think you cannot do."  You Learn By Living, 1960

“In the long run, there is no more liberating, no more exhilarating experience than to determine one’s position, state it bravely, and then act boldly.” Tomorrow is Now, 1963 (published posthumously)

“The greatest and most inspiring adventure of all time probably will be carried out in the next fifty years, the adventure of building a new world.” Tomorrow is Now, 1963

BULLET POINTS

This is a life characterized more by durations than by single date events.

Oct 11, 1894  Birth of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt

1900-1903      Studies under Mlle Souvestre at Allenswood School in England

1903-1904      Voluntees with Junior League and Consumer League

Mar 17, 1905 Marries Franklin Delano Roosevelt

1906-1916      Bears six children.  (Five survive infancy.)

1920s            Joins League of Women Voters, Women’s Trade Union League, and Women’s Division of the Democratic Party.  Works to pass Child Labor Amendment and for subsequent ratification by the states. Serves on Bok Peace Prize committee.  Learns public speaking.

1927-1937     Creates Valkill Furniture Factory with Nancy Cook and Marion Dickerman

1927-1933    Creates and teaches at Todhunter School in NYC with Marion Dickerman and Caroline O’Day.

1928            Works on Al Smith presidential campaign, while FDR runs for governor of NY, which places her in the national spotlight

1929-1933     First Lady of New York to Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Conducts inspections of factories and hospitals on FDR’s behalf.

Mar 30, 1933 - Apr 12, 1945  First Lady to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.   Breaks all First Lady traditions by traveling, writing, speaking, and talking on the radio. Uses her voice for the poor, for African Americans, for labor unions, for children, for service workers, for women, and, during WWII, for servicemen and women, for theJapanese, and for Jews.

Jan 1936 - Nov 1962 Writes daily “My Day” article, six days a week for almost 30 years.

Apr 1946    Selected to chair the committee charged with creating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Dec. 10, 1948  Universal Declaration of Human Rights endorsed by United Nations General Assembly.

1952-1960   Travels extensively as “First Lady of the World.”

Nov 7, 1962  Death by rare strain of tuberculosis.