Historical Figure
Eleanor Roosevelt
1884–1962
American diplomat and activist (1884–1962)
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Biography
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the longest-serving first lady of the United States, during her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt's four terms as president from 1933 to 1945. Through her travels, public engagement, and advocacy, she largely redefined the role. Widowed in 1945, she served as a United States delegate to the United Nations General Assembly from 1945 to 1952, and took a leading role in designing the text and gaining international support for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1948, she was given a standing ovation by the assembly upon their adoption of the declaration. President Harry S. Truman called her the "First Lady of the World" in tribute to her human rights achievements.
In Their Own Words (5)
Oh! I want to put my arms around you, I ache to hold you close. Your ring is a great comfort. I look at it and think she does love me or I wouldn't be wearing it!
In a letter to Lorena Hickok, March 7, 1933 , 1933
Do what you feel in your heart to be right — for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be "damned if you do, and damned if you don't."
As quoted in How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1944; 1948) by Dale Carnegie; though Roosevelt has sometimes been credited with the originating the expression, "Damned if you do and damned if you don't" is set in quote marks, indicating she herself was quoting a common expression in saying this. Actually, this saying was coined in 1836 by evangelist Lorenzo Dow. , 1944
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." … You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
p. 29–30 , 1960
We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk.
The New York Times (1960), as cited in The Beacon Book of Quotations by Women (1992) by Rosalie Maggio, p. 156 , 1960
What we must learn to do is to create unbreakable bonds between the sciences and the humanities. We cannot procrastinate. The world of the future is in our making. Tomorrow is now.
p. 134 , 1963
Timeline
The story of Eleanor Roosevelt, told in moments.
Marries her fifth cousin once removed, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on St. Patrick's Day. Uncle Theodore, the sitting president, walks her down the aisle. He tells the press: "It is a good thing to keep the name in the family." Franklin's mother Sara opposed the match, took him on a Caribbean cruise to kill the romance. It didn't work.
Unpacking Franklin's suitcase, she finds a bundle of love letters from her own social secretary, Lucy Mercer. Franklin considers leaving. His mother threatens to disinherit him. They stay married but it's a political partnership now. Not an intimate one.
Becomes First Lady. Holds regular press conferences. Writes a daily newspaper column. Hosts a weekly radio show. Speaks at the national convention. Publicly disagrees with her husband's policies on occasion. Every one of these is a first.
Chairs the UN commission that drafts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. When the General Assembly adopts it, she receives a standing ovation. Truman calls her "First Lady of the World." She is 64 and no longer anyone's wife.
Dies at 78 in Manhattan. The New York Times calls her "the object of almost universal respect." Gallup named her the most admired woman in America thirteen separate years.
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