October 11, 1884 – Birth of Eleanor Roosevelt

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born on this day in history in New York City. She served as the First Lady of the United States from March 1933 to April 1945 during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four terms in office, making her the longest serving First Lady of the United States.

As her biography on the FDR Library website reveals, Anna’s father was Elliott Roosevelt, President Theodore Roosevelt’s younger brother, and her mother was Anna Hall, a member of the distinguished Livingston family. Both her parents died when she was a child: her mother in 1892, and her father in 1894. After her mother’s death, Eleanor went to live with her grandmother in what was reportedly a loveless house in Tivoli, New York.

Eleanor in a school portrait, 1898

She was educated by private tutors until the age of 15, and then she was sent to Allenswood, a school for girls in England. The headmistress took a special interest in young Eleanor and had a great influence on her education and thinking. At age 18, Eleanor returned to New York with a fresh sense of confidence in herself and her abilities. She was a different person; one who had developed compassion for those with less than she had. She became involved in social service work, joined the Junior League and taught at the Rivington Street Settlement House.

She accepted the marriage proposal of a distant cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and she became a politician’s wife, and then a behind-the-scenes politician herself. Within eleven years Eleanor bore six children; one son died in infancy.

Roosevelt in her wedding dress, 1905

Roosevelt was a controversial First Lady at the time because of her outspokenness, particularly her stance on racial issues. She was the first presidential spouse to hold regular press conferences, write a daily newspaper column, write a monthly magazine column, host a weekly radio show, and speak at a national party convention. On a few occasions, she publicly disagreed with her husband’s policies. She advocated for expanded roles for women in the workplace, the civil rights of African Americans and Asian Americans, and the rights of World War II refugees.

Eleanor Roosevelt, 1932

She continued to crusade for poor and minorities even after her husband died in 1945, meeting with world leaders and advocating for human rights. She served as U.S. Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly from 1945 to 1953.

In April 1960, Roosevelt was diagnosed with aplastic anemia soon after being struck by a car in New York City. In 1962, she was given steroids, which activated a dormant case of tuberculosis in her bone marrow, and she died of resulting cardiac failure at her Manhattan home on November 7, 1962 at the age of 78. President John F. Kennedy ordered all United States flags lowered to half-staff on November 8 in tribute to Roosevelt.