WebWidely considered the first female presidential chief of staff, Marguerite Missy LeHand was the right-hand woman to Franklin Delano Rooseveltboth personally and 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. I became unpopular, Trohan continues. In the 1950s and 1960s she was the fearless, indefatigable, right-minded woman every girl who knew there was more to life than cheerleading wanted to emulate. Marguerite Missy LeHand (18981944) was born to an Irish family in Potsdam, New York. Four years ago, when reports of presidential misbehavior convulsed the country, I found myself wanting to tell the story of three people who comported themselves with dignity and grace in the face of imminent heartbreak and of an era that allowed them to. He made no attempt to conceal his feelings about Missy.'. 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. Only a sliding door separated 49 East 65th Street (Franklin and Eleanor's residence) from Sara's next door. She lived quietly, if splendidly, on a great estate in rural New Jersey and a handsome retreat in fashionable Aiken, South Carolina. Unlike a formerly unpublished letter from which I finally got permission to quote, it wasnt even classified. As a result, practically everyone left the presidential presence convinced his own argument had won the day. Eleanor also had to contend with her mother-in-law Sara Delano Roosevelt. }). Eleanor Roosevelt was not with him on the trip. This week marks the 72nd anniversary of the death and subsequent funeral of President Franklin Roosevelt. * [Contains spoilers. Missy LeHand #Roosevelts on Film - FDR Presidential Library & Museum The historical consensus is that Lucy Mercer gave FDR the unquestioning adoration ER could not. [34] When Eleanor discovered, shortly after Roosevelt's death, from some female cousins, of Anna's role in arranging these meetings, the relationship between Eleanor and Anna became strained and cool for some time. [1], As a young woman, Lucy Mercer worked in a dress shop. My fascination with Eleanor Roosevelt dates back to my childhood. 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. The blog of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. 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. Her relationship with FDR transcended her role as his secretary. 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. FDR relished rich foods and fine wines. Sometimes, these bled into public view. He always enjoyed other peoples discomfort, Averell Harriman observed. Because of her efforts, women as well as men had Civilian Conservation Corps camps, and children no longer drank tainted milk, and blacks got a share, if not a fair one, of the defense miracle that was wresting the nation out of the Depression and into World War II. One morning over breakfast she asked if a letter had arrived. 'Everyone in the close-knit inner circle of father's friends accepted it as a matter of course,' he wrote. Who was this woman who attracted the greatest man of her time and held him until he died, not in her arms, as gossip still has it, but close enough? FDR and Marshall had to build a fighting force able to take on the Nazis, against the wishes of many in Congress. When FDR died, Grace Tully ended up with all of the papers that she and Missy had collected over the years. Historians have also debated whether, as a Roman Catholic, Mercer would have been willing to marry a divorced man. *Based on a series of articles(in Norwegian) written by Mari Aftret Mrtvedt and Ola Nymo Trulsen for NRK, the Norwegian Broadcasting Company. Everybody wants something, ER replied. Several of them actually lived in the White House at one time or another. Missy LeHand During the same time period, Roosevelt was said to be involved with Dorothy Schiff, a former publisher of the New York Post. ER relied upon the kindness and sustenance of her friends, especially her women friends. and how much more must still be given this greedy world . Marguerite LeHand (U.S. National Park Service) FDR would visit her for short periods of time while he fought a global war, and the old Childrens Hour gang kept her company. Shortly after Franklin and Eleanor's honeymoon, the whole family moved into a six-story home with two residences, according to Hazel Rowley's "Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage." What should have been their day alone ended up with the two of them practically ignored. It rotted in the basement. Sign up to get the latest news on your favorite dramas and mysteries, as well as exclusive content, video, sweepstakes and more. (If FDR had not fallen in love with Lucy Mercer, ER might never have become a force for peace and social justice. 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. FACT: Though not as depicted in Atlantic Crossing. [40][41] Rutherfurd is buried, along with her husband, in Green Township, New Jersey. By Hayley Peterson FDR was convinced he had found a new form of therapy. Their daughter Anna tells of one evening in the White House when her mother so infuriated her father with her insistence that he address a sheaf of papers this high during the 20 minutes permitted for two very small cocktails that he flung the entire stack across the room. FDR's affinity for the company of women was always well known and some historians dispute stories of his alleged affairs, saying his friendships never grew to Rumors of their affair spread like wildfire, as she always conveniently visited the White House and Hyde Park when Eleanor was out of town. 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. Roosevelt left Missy half of his $3 million estate. [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. He hated to be alone. After discovering the relationship, she offered her husband a divorce. But there is no question that the time they spent on board the Larooco laid the foundation for a deep bond between them that lasted until Missys death. Franklin Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, not long after his election to an unprecedented fourth term as president. After Missy LeHand suffered a stroke in 1941, Grace became FDR's primary personal secretary. Her descendants speak of the insouciance with which she met early hardship. She did such a good job that when FDR was hired to be a vice president for the Fidelity and Deposit Company he asked her to become his full time secretary. Though Ragni stgaard mentions summer visits from the President in her letters to Nikolai, FDR was at Hyde Park when the U-boat surfaced, says Kalllestein. Where Franklin believed that the war effort superseded civil liberties, Eleanor argued that wartime was when belief in the Bill of Rights most counted. region: "", [1] Lucy had one sister, Violetta Carroll Mercer (18891947). 'The bottom dropped out of my world,' she later said. 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. Surely the monumental demands ER made on her husband were proof of her belief in his ability to rise to them. Hers was the ONLY office with such a door. The wife of his aide Edwin ("Pa") Watson called him the loneliest man in the world. In 1943 FDR told his distant cousin and close companion Margaret Suckley, Im either Exhibit A or left completely alone.. 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). He provided for her in his will, but she suffered a stroke in 1941 and predeceased him. Missy, as FDRs children nicknamed her, Lucy Page Mercer was born on April 26, 1891, in Washington, D.C., to Carroll Mercer (18571917), a member of Theodore Roosevelt's "Rough Riders" cavalry military unit in the campaigns in Cuba, on the south shore of the island near Santiago during the brief SpanishAmerican War in 1898, and Minna Leigh (Minnie) Tunis (18631947), an independent woman of "Bohemian" exotic, free-spirited tastes. I can forgive, but never forget. Terms of Use: PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. After 65 years, the archives of FDRs personal secretary are now open to the public, The world-shaping relationship between these two giants got off to a rocky start. The current series running on PBSs Masterpiece, Atlantic Crossing, a Norwegian public television The Gatekeeper: Missy LeHand, FDR, and the Untold Story of the Partnership That Defined a Presidency by Kathryn Smith finally gives Missy LeHand her due. But she did. you have breathed new life into its spiritand the fate of all that is good is in your dear blessed and capable hands. Still, she cannot help wishing for the soft life of joy & the world shut out.. The offices, ambitions, and illnesses of Franklin Roosevelt saw him frequently away from home. The difference of several weeks would not seem important but for who else was in the White House at the time. With Elliott Roosevelt deceased, Eleanor was given away at the wedding by her uncle. Missy After his reelection and the Yalta Conference the following February, Franklin retreated to a favorite residence in Warm Springs, Georgia, for rest. 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. Missy LeHand, FDR's closest companion for two decades, was crippled by a stroke followed by a nervous breakdown. For her part, Eleanor Roosevelt also enjoyed the company of a woman. It is generally accepted that their relationship contained a romantic element, though scholars remain divided on whether the pair had a sexual relationship. After the election, Eleanor asked Missy to come to her home in Hyde Park and help finish up the correspondence. In a review for the Washington Post, Stacy Schiff details the first lady's long-term relationship with reporter Lorena Hickok. 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. Missy LeHand, FDR, Dutchess County neighbor Maunsell Crosby, and Frances de Rham, 1924 The year 1924 also introduced FDR to Warm Spring Georgia, where he The Presidents official schedule for June 5, 1941, reads in part: "1130: To Marguerite A. LeHands apartment, "1555-1740: Returned from Office to Study White House accompanied by Mrs. Johnson, "1740: To Marguerite A. LeHands apartment. Ikes son, historian John Eisenhower, recalls attending meetings with the British wartime leader and reflects on his character and accomplishments. 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. the grandniece of Marguerite A. 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. Eleanor Roosevelt might have been a saint, but she was a saint with a faddish bent and a powerful peasant breath. She made other people happy. 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. 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." 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. Born in 1882, he was the only child of James Roosevelt and Sara Delano. Franklin allowed Eleanor to build a personal cottage, Val-Kill, on the family's Hyde Park estate, where she could host whomever she liked or be left alone. FDR expressed a longing for white asparagus. 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. After two decades of cruising the Florida waters and sharing a Warm Springs cottage with FDR, sitting by his side as he sorted his stamps when she knew he needed silence, and arranging impromptu dinners and late-night poker games when she sensed hed like company, Missy, who was only 43, had suffered a stroke the night beforebrought on, some said, by her effort to keep up with FDR. "[10], In 1918, Franklin went on a trip to Europe to inspect naval facilities for the war. 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. Even after consenting to her son's getting married, Sara Delano Roosevelt continued to loom large in Franklin Roosevelt's life, something that Eleanor Roosevelt could hardly miss. Rutherfurd is portrayed by Maria Dizzia. Opinion | FDRs private secretary who served also as his When his daughter Anna was grown and newly divorced, she took up residence in the White House and became her father's confidante. [Press officer] Steve Early called me into his office and asked me to stop.. I pitied Eleanor. And biographer Hazel Rowley has speculated (via Roll Call) that Mercer's devout Catholic faith may have prevented a physical relationship. Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd - Wikipedia . But in 1941 Missys health problems finally caught up with her, as they would with FDR four years later. But nothing changed upon Franklin's return to the United States, and he gently but persistently made clear to his mother that he was leaving the nest. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that she wasn't privy to the courtship between Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, begun in 1902. 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.". FDR's Secretary of Labor the first female Cabinet member also helpedcreatethe minimum wage, 40-hour work week, and first tough child labor laws. Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day": Family During the early days of their marriage, ER wrote her mother-in-law that the Jew party at Bernard Baruchs was appalling. Franklin and Eleanor were acquainted as children but came to romance and courtship as young adults in 1902. But this was FDRs first shot at national political office and he went at it with his trademark gusto. The relationships were intense, the disappointments profound, the fallings-out fierce. She expected her husband to do well. And what was the future First Lady who would champion female equality doing opposing woman suffrage? Olav confronts his wife about rumors of an affair. Now in his fifties, Rutherfurd was considered one of society's most eligible widowers. It was not only that Eleanor, with her public achievements, personal tragedies, and flair for emotional undressing in public that would have warmed the heart of a latter-day talk-show host, could not help upstaging her; it was also that Lucy had a passion for privacy.
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