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. 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. She speaks of how much you have given . 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. WebBeing obsessed with all things Roosevelt, I was thrilled to see a biography about Marguerite Missy LeHand, President Franklin D. Roosevelts personal secretary. Hers was the ONLY office with such a door. It was up to him, if it was up to anyone, to help her reach some sort of accommodation with married life and with her peculiar new surroundings. The statement is both chivalrous, in keeping with Alsops old-school background, and idealistic, in its faith in the power of marital devotion, but the seemingly throwaway clause if it was up to anyone is the operative phrase. From initial encounters during the 1932 presidential campaign, Hickok would eventually take up residence in the White House near Eleanor's rooms. Unlike a chronology of events I later unearthed, the note was not a new discovery. The offices, ambitions, and illnesses of Franklin Roosevelt saw him frequently away from home. 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 [1] Unlike a formerly unpublished letter from which I finally got permission to quote, it wasnt even classified. 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. One morning over breakfast she asked if a letter had arrived. In 1941 she re-entered the paralyzed Presidents life bearing an additional gift. Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt wed on St. Patrick's Day of 1905 in New York City in the home of Eleanor's grandmother, perHistory Today. I waded through the syrupy tributes in hope of a crumb of real insight. His mother Sara Delano, his wife Eleanor, his Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins the first woman to be appointed to the cabinet, and his distant cousin Daisy Suckley. At this stage in their marriage, the Roosevelts were also maintaining distance in their private lives. While the letters are suggestive, some historians say argue they do not provide hard evidence of a physical love affair. At the time of their marriage, Eleanor's uncle Theodore Roosevelt joked that "there's nothing like keeping the name in the family." 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. After Ambassador William Bullitt attempted to sabotage the career of Assistant Secretary of State Sumner Welles by spreading rumors of a homosexual scandal, FDR predicted that on the Day of Judgment, Welles would receive a rap on the knuckles for giving in to his human predilections but that Bullitt would burn in hell for ruining another mans life. 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. Few political or personal marriages have been as significant to the history of America as that between Eleanor and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Missy suffered a terrible stroke in 1941 and left the White House, so her assistant Grace Tully took over for her. But their public accomplishments took a personal toll. When I thought about their personal flaws, I marveled at the public good to which they put them. It was with the help of these accomplished attorneys, social workers, journalists, and activists that she found her voice and defined her causes. At nearly the same hour, forty-three-year-old Marguerite A. Now in his fifties, Rutherfurd was considered one of society's most eligible widowers. In 2017, Barbara Collins Jacques donated to the FDR "[16] Eleanor later wrote, "I have the memory of an elephant. 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." That is undoubtedly true. Just as I was discovering a darker side of ERs character, so a more melancholy aspect of FDRs life began to emerge. I naturally fell for him. 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. Marguerite LeHand The White House staff grew quickly as the work load of the First 100 Days and the ever growing volume of correspondence demanded attention. Per the Washington Post, Eleanor burned the love letters she uncovered from Mercer to Franklin. Their relationship was a complicated one, marked by numerous episodes of hardship and heartbreak until Franklin's death in 1945. See also "Miss LeHand: FDR's Influential and Largely Forgotten Assistant". 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 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." More than this, she referred to them as her own. 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. [4] In 1914, Mercer was hired by Eleanor Roosevelt to become her social secretary. Anna Roosevelt, Franklin and Eleanor's only daughter, played hostess at these dinners, and other members of the Roosevelt and Delano families were aware of the clandestine rendezvous. Adoring crowds made the president the center of attention, both at the wedding and the reception. Thus was born a truly remarkable partnership. Where Franklin believed that the war effort superseded civil liberties, Eleanor argued that wartime was when belief in the Bill of Rights most counted. But when FDR returned to New York after several months at sea he displayed marked improvements both physically and mentally. He bought an old boat with his friend John Lawrence and christened it the Larooco (Lawrence, Roosevelt Co.) and in the winter of 1924, FDR, Missy, and Leroy set sail for the warm Caribbean waters near Florida. Born in 1882, he was the only child of James Roosevelt and Sara Delano. 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. He maintained a relationship with his secretary Marguerite "Missy" LeHand. FDR was not the only one to endure the subtle retribution of his long-suffering wife. FDR's mother definitely wanted to keep her son a mother's boy, notes theNew York Review. Missy came into the Roosevelt world in August 1920 when she was offered a job as a secretary to support Franklin Roosevelts Vice Presidential campaign. 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. Several of them actually lived in the White House at one time or another. "[10], In 1918, Franklin went on a trip to Europe to inspect naval facilities for the war. WebBesides children and grandchildren, several other longtime aides and friends also lived in the White House during the Roosevelt years. The President sent his wife out as his investigator and ambassador, valued her opinion, boasted of her achievements, and defended her weaknesses. 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. She was an exquisitely sensitive and engaging companion and later a constant and competent nurse to a husband who doted on her. The Gatekeeper: Missy LeHand, FDR, and the Untold Story . She told a friend she had burned FDRs letters, though I do not believe that for a moment. Missy, as FDRs children nicknamed her, She admitted later in life that "It did not come naturally to me to understand little children or to enjoy them." Roosevelt left Missy half of his $3 million estate. Find out about new shows, get updates on your favorite dramas and mysteries, enjoy exclusive content and more! 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. While there has been speculation that FDR and Missy had an affair during this time, there is no evidence to support it, and her long and warm relationship with Eleanor and the children casts serious doubts on it. The home was a gift from Sara (per Biography), and both residences were run by her. 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. In conjunction with Glenn Horowitz Booksellers, we are offering the archive, intact, directly from Ms. LeHands heirs. Terms of Use: PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. As a wedded couple, however, they encountered difficulties almost from the beginning, one of them in the bedroom. My love affair with her husband, which came later, was more personal and had to do as much with my adolescent yearnings as the great mans achievements. In doing so, he hoped to receive clemency and resume his life in America. After discovering the relationship, she offered her husband a divorce. They mention her soft heart. As he dragged his legs back and forth between two parallel bars, or swung beneath them, or went through other agonizingly repetitious exercises, he kept up a marathon of dazzling conversation designed to distract and entertain. But whitewashing the weaknesses of the great is a disservice to them as well as history. Sara insisted that the couple delay their marriage by one year. 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. 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.