First Lady Eleanor Roosevelts evolving relationship with African Americans challenged her beliefs about herselfand the world she had been raised in. Hers was the ONLY office with such a door. I mean a contagious genius for living joyously. [21] Franklin Roosevelt learned of the marriage by overhearing news of it at a party. Only a sliding door separated 49 East 65th Street (Franklin and Eleanor's residence) from Sara's next door. For her part, Eleanor Roosevelt also enjoyed the company of a woman. According to the real communique, Martha had told a Quaker she trusts that she wanted to return home. When President Roosevelt died, Grace Tully took all of her and many of Missys papers with her. Her film collection documents social activities from a Roosevelt inner circle perspective, and bring new [Press officer] Steve Early called me into his office and asked me to stop.. Lash speculates that this last betrayal contributed to Eleanor's feeling that Franklin's death was more an abstract grief at the loss of a symbol than a personal sorrow for her. Contrary to his promises never to see Rutherfurd again after their 1918 affair, Franklin maintained a friendship with his former mistress, going so far as to invite her to White House dinners. . FDR was physically fearless, but he could be emotionally craven. . This was in part a matter of logistics; some of these trips were to do with Franklin's rehabilitation from polio, while Eleanor had the family to look after. He was married to Eleanor. 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. In a short period of time she became the most famous secretary in America. Missy was part of FDRs most inner circle, those few people who crossed over from the political to the personal worlds of the Roosevelts. A nationwide gene-purity movement promoted methods that eventually were adopted by the Third Reich. During the early days of their marriage, ER wrote her mother-in-law that the Jew party at Bernard Baruchs was appalling. Sara insisted that the couple delay their marriage by one year. Winthrop Rutherfurd died in March 1944 after a long illness. The film, opening December 7, stars Bill Murray as Roosevelt and Laura Linney as Miss Suckley. 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. Several of them actually lived in the White House at one time or another. Tasked with bringing up the children, Eleanor Roosevelt struggled to relate to her brood. 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. 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. Just as I was discovering a darker side of ERs character, so a more melancholy aspect of FDRs life began to emerge. 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. When FDR and Lucy, who was by then Mrs. Winthrop Rutherfurd, began to meet again in 1941, while ER was importuning FDR not to sacrifice social progress to military imperatives, Lucy was referring to him as the Source I Do Not Question. Even more moving than the words she wrote about FDR to others is a letter she sent to him that was until now locked away among the classified documents in the FDR Library. The more I admired the three of them, the less I wanted to gloss over their faults. Per Hazel Rowley's "Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage," the four-time first lady went so far as to tell her grown daughter, Anna Roosevelt Halsted, that sex was "an ordeal to be borne.". But the woman who is perhaps least remembered but most important was Marguerite Missy LeHand, his personal secretary and closest confidant for more than 20 years. "I am more your mother than your mother is" (via "No Ordinary Time"). Her presence and control were so all-encompassing that Eleanor later recalled weeping before Franklin, telling him through her tears that "I did not like to live in a house which was not in any way mine, one that I had done nothing about and which did not represent the way I wanted to live" (via Rowley's book). "Your mother only bore you," she went so far as to tell young James Roosevelt. In a tragic situation that tested all three individuals, each behaved with honor and dignity. Teddy's daughter, Alice Roosevelt, would later put it that, "My father lived up to his reputation of being the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral. 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. [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. Rutherfurd continued to meet more frequently with Roosevelt in the months that followed. A complete collection of their correspondence can be found here:The Grace Tully Collection Finding Aid. I waded through the syrupy tributes in hope of a crumb of real insight. But whitewashing the weaknesses of the great is a disservice to them as well as history. But all three were grand enough to accommodate flaws. James Cox was the democratic candidate for President, and it was widely assumed he would lose to the Republican candidate Senator Warren Harding. 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. White House cuisine became so notorious that Martha Gellhorn surprised her future husband Ernest Hemingway by wolfing down several sandwiches in preparation for dinner there. [35], In early April 1945, Anna arranged for Rutherfurd to come over from her South Carolina estate in Aiken to meet her father at his "Little White House" in Warm Springs, Georgia, the small plain rustic cottage built at the polio therapy center by the heated mineral water springs resort that Roosevelt helped develop beginning in the 1920s. Franklin Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, not long after his election to an unprecedented fourth term as president. But many women worshiped FDRthe spunky Missy LeHand, the willfully spinsterish Daisy Suckley, the flirtatious Princess Martha of Norway, whose sexy high heels and stillunrationed black silk stockings the press gleefully reported. Getting to know FDR, ER, and Lucy Mercer was not an unalloyed pleasure. [40][41] Rutherfurd is buried, along with her husband, in Green Township, New Jersey. Her relationship with her mother-in-law was not one of constant hostility, but her patience with Sara was often tried. Alice Roosevelt Longworthdaughter of Theodore Roosevelt, and a cousin of Eleanor'sencouraged the affair, inviting Mercer and Franklin to dinner together several times. Their long distance relationship proved both exhilarating and frustrating for Missy. 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. While Lucy Mercer, now Mrs. Winthrop Rutherfurd, was having tea with the President in the oval study, Marguerite ("Missy") LeHand, his personal secretary, lay in her small room on the third floor sedated but uncalm. Subscribe to the MASTERPIECE email newsletter for weekly show news, schedule updates, and features on shows including Tom Jones. Nonetheless, FDR had his standards of conduct. The remained with her until her death, and in 2010 they finally arrived at the FDR Library as the Grace Tully Collection. Her relationship with FDR transcended her role as his secretary. Many cabinet secretaries, congressmen, senators and ambassadors courted favor with Missy in an attempt to gain access to the president. 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. FDR's mother definitely wanted to keep her son a mother's boy, notes theNew York Review. Yet he often dined on Mrs. Nesbitts inedible food off a solitary tray in his study. 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. The home was a gift from Sara (per Biography), and both residences were run by her. According toHistory Today, Eleanor came to the marriage with little to no education in sex. 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. . the grandniece of Marguerite A. There were supposedly several dinners in the White House's second-floor private quarters during Roosevelt's last year which were attended by Rutherfurd in a group with Anna's presence and obvious acceptance. 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. 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. Throughout her life, ER blamed her early inadequacy as a mother for her childrens unhappiness and took on radio engagements, writing assignments, and other endeavors to further their careers and shore up their finances. target: "#hbspt-form-1682997151000-4739201604", She once bought out an entire farm stand so the woman running it could close for the day. 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. As the years passed, she developed a resigned and cynical attitude toward intercourse with her husband. The White House staff grew quickly as the work load of the First 100 Days and the ever growing volume of correspondence demanded attention. 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. Marguerite LeHand, Personal Secretary to President 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. STill, if FDR could not save his wife, he did not have to betray her. Mercer stayed in FDR's life until his death in 1945, and she was with him when he took his last breaths, even though she eventually married another man. The next four years in Albany provided FDR with a powerful platform to re-establish his national profile. Dont, I murmured when on FDRs first presidential visit to Campobello a dozen years after hed been stricken with polio and carried off the island on a stretcher, she scolded him publicly for bringing the assembled guests to the dinner table late. Although her official title as personal secretary was relatively humble, her power and influence were unparalleled. Readmore about the magazine >>, The magazine was forced to suspend print publication in 2013, but a group of volunteers saved the archives and relaunched it in digital form in 2017. Roosevelt's longest supposed affair was with his secretary, Missy LeHand, which some historians believe he became romantically involved with beginning in 1921, when he was serving as governor of New York. Free subscription>>, Please consider a donation to help us keep this American treasure alive. But in 1941 Missys health problems finally caught up with her, as they would with FDR four years later. The historical consensus is that Lucy Mercer gave FDR the unquestioning adoration ER could not. Marguerite (Missy) LeHand was FDRs longtime personal secretary and confidante. The testimony of others, which ranged from the banal to the hyperbolic, affords few clues to her character. Eleanor Roosevelt was not with him on the trip. 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. 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. When I looked at their early prejudices, I saw signposts indicating how far they had traveled. Roosevelt faced the challenges of a widened war at the moment when he lost a key member of his circle. [15] He and Eleanor remained married, and he pledged never to see Mercer again. 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. 'I have longed to have you with me,' he wrote in one letter from a cruise to Panama. Eleanor nonetheless soon later learned the truth from the cousins and felt doubly betrayed to learn of her daughter's role in the long-time deception. Grace performed dictation and typing, managed the President's mail, and served as primary files manager for the White House. If Lucy Mercers art was living, the medium in which she worked was personal and the scale miniature. To her surprise, Anna found that she liked Rutherfurd immediately, and the pair became friends. FDR's Indispensable Right-Hand Woman Portrayed Unfairly Again. One of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's numerous rumored affairs will be revisited in the coming weeks with the release of 'Hyde Park on Hudson,' a film depicting the American president's quasi-incestual affair with his distant cousin, Margaret 'Daisy' Suckley. If Lucy Mercer had been a weaker, less generous-spirited woman, FDR might not have become one of Americas greatest Presidents.) Born in 1882, he was the only child of James Roosevelt and Sara Delano. Goodwin writes in No Ordinary Time that it was disturbing for Missy to be replaced by another woman.. * [Contains spoilers. Everybody wants something, ER replied. That was a given. Once againEleanor did not care for the informal lifestyle and poverty stricken countryside, so Missy became thehostess for FDRs Warm Springs home. The Bank Holiday excitement is a bit too much for some! Eleanor Roosevelt was the greatest obstacle I faced when I started the research for Lucy, a novel about the love affair that altered and almost derailed twentieth-century history. 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. 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. During her childhood the family moved to Massachusetts, settling 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. And I continued to worship Franklin. It was a wifes revenge on her husband, for betraying her love, for falling short of her standards. 'Everyone in the close-knit inner circle of father's friends accepted it as a matter of course,' he wrote. The annual parade was a fixture of New York even then, and the festivities outside reportedly drowned out the exchange of marriage vows. It was during this transition that Grace Tully entered the picture as Missys assistant. 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. 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 - In conjunction with Glenn Horowitz Booksellers, we are offering the archive, intact, directly from Ms. LeHands heirs. Eleanor Roosevelt was 13 years into her marriage in 1918. His removal from friends and peers was made up for by the love and support of his family, particularly his mother. Her personal conduct was no less inspiring; she was the embodiment of one of her husbands favorite wordsgrand. After resigning his job FDR left for an extended cruise on a houseboat in Florida with Missy, his personal valet LeRoy Jones and a rotating cast of old friends. After all the experts and advisers have rung in, one man must make the decision to cut the meager pensions of World War I veterans, to give Americans numbers to ensure their social security, to send abroad precious ships and arms that may soon be needed at home. (If FDR had not fallen in love with Lucy Mercer, ER might never have become a force for peace and social justice. Both were dedicated to the idea of public service and worked to lead America out of the Great Depression. 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. Their correspondence is filled with romantic expressions and longing, though whether they had a physical relationship isn't known for sure; at least in regards to her marriage, Eleanor maintained that shared connection and common interest trumped lusty urges. Most historians ascribe FDRs metamorphosis from callow politician to visionary statesman to his contracting polio in the summer of 1921, but some contemporaries, such as Joseph Alsop and his mother, Corinne, who was ERs first cousin, thought that loving, and losing, Lucy Mercer was the fire that began to forge his strength and patience even before his illness. [43], The MercerRoosevelt affair became wider public knowledge in 1966 when revealed in The Time Between the Wars, a memoir by Jonathan W. Daniels (19021981), a Roosevelt aide from 1943 to 1945. that it would be best if you answered it now? she insisted. Both left important political legacies: Franklin Roosevelt was the president who led the United States through the Great Depression and WWII, and fascinating facts about Eleanor Roosevelts life include how she organized press conferences at the White House Du Bois supported it. She spent time in Warm Springs getting FDRs new cottage ready for him. FDR flattered and flirted with them all, but it was Lucy for whom he had almost left his wife before he had polio, and Lucy whom the White House operators were instructed to put through no matter when she called, and Lucy whom he was with when he succumbed to a cerebral hemorrhage on that clement April afternoon in Warm Springs. While Sara had initially frowned on her son's marriage, she now threatened to cut off his inheritance should he follow through with a divorce. Missy, as FDRs children nicknamed her, Dont you think, Franklin, that you should answer it promptly? she urged. She expected her husband to do well. His team included Louis Howe, Frances Perkins, Sam Rosenman, and of course Missy. But she did. A formidable, multitalented multitasker.. Moreover, while I do not believe that parents are responsible for the acts of adult offspring, and the nature-nurture debate is far from settled, the five surviving Roosevelt children married a total of 19 times. Rutherfurd is portrayed by Maria Dizzia. [33] In June 1944, Roosevelt requested of his daughter Anna, who was then managing some White House social functions and acting as hostess, that she help him arrange to meet Rutherfurd without Eleanor's knowledge. She was also determined that he would do good. But didnt she understand that her husband desperately needed a brief escape from the burden of reopening the banks and dreaming up Lend-Lease and responding to the worst naval defeat in Americas history? Throughout his life, Franklin Roosevelt was surrounded by remarkable women. While fond of his niece, Theodoremade the wedding into a St. Patrick's Day "pit stop," according to Marc Peyser and Timothy Dwyer's book "Hissing Cousins." [1] Lucy had one sister, Violetta Carroll Mercer (18891947). 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. In the first decade of their marriage, Eleanor was pregnant five times, four within the first four years. He always enjoyed other peoples discomfort, Averell Harriman observed. Schiff's biographer, Jeffrey Potter, claimed in his 1976 book, 'Men, Money and Magic: The Story of Dorothy Schiff,' that she admitted to having an affair with FDR between 1936 and 1943. 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. Crowds flock to beaches and parks as traditional May Day celebrations One of many women: Franklin D. Roosevelt was said to have carried on a 20-year affair with his secretary, Marguerite 'Missy' LeHand. But when FDR returned to New York after several months at sea he displayed marked improvements both physically and mentally. By Paul M. Sparrow, Director, FDR Library.

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