Basic Facts:
Birth: January 30, 1882 at Hyde Park, New York
Death: April 12, 1945 at Warm Springs, Georgia
Married: Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) on March 17, 1905
Children: 6: Anna, James, Elliott, Franklin (born and died 1909), Franklin (born 1914), John
President: Four terms beginning March 4, 1933, January 20, 1937, January 20, 1941, January 20, 1945- died April 12, 1945
Family
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt and Franklin had six children:
- Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1906–1975) an American writer who worked as a newspaper editor and in public relations. Halsted also wrote two children’s books published in the 1930s. She was the eldest child and only daughter of the U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt and assisted him as his advisor during World War II.
- James Roosevelt II (1907–1991) The eldest son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, he served as an official Secretary to the President for his father and was later elected to the United States House of Representatives representing California. He received the Navy Cross while serving as a Marine Corps officer during World War II.
- Franklin Roosevelt (March 18, 1909 – November 8, 1909 )
- Elliott Roosevelt (1910–1990)was an American aviation official and wartime officer in the United States Army Air Forces, reaching the rank of brigadier general.
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. (1914–1988) He served as a United States Congressman from New York from 1949 to 1955 and in 1963 was appointed United States Under Secretary of Commerce by President John F. Kennedy. He was appointed as the first chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1965 to 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
- John Aspinwall Roosevelt (1916–1981) American businessman, only child of FDR who did not seek public office.
Franklin married Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, his fifth cousin once removed, on March 17, 1905, despite the fierce resistance of his mother who believed Franklin was too young for marriage. Eleanor was the niece of another of FDR’s distant relatives, President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt. President Roosevelt actually walked Eleanor down the aisle at her wedding to FDR, filling in for Eleanor’s late father.
Per Wikipedia: Eleanor had an aversion to sexual intercourse and considered it “an ordeal to be endured”…
Roosevelt had several extra-marital affairs, including one with Eleanor’s social secretary, Lucy Mercer, which began soon after she was hired in early 1914. Lucy was with Roosevelt on the day he died in 1945. Despite this, Roosevelt’s affair was not widely known until the 1960s.
Roosevelt’s son Elliott claimed that his father had a 20-year affair with his private secretary, Marguerite “Missy” LeHand.
There is considerable debate about whether or not Eleanor Roosevelt had lesbian relationships with women such as journalist Lorena Hickok. There is no doubt that the women were very close friends when Lorena gave up her job and moved into the White House — in a room adjoining the first lady’s.
Other
Franklin Roosevelt was and will be the longest serving President in the U. S. He was elected to four terms. Congress passed the 22nd Amendment limiting the president’s term to no more than 10 years in 1951.
Franklin was the only child of Sara Delano and James Roosevelt, but he was not, however, his father’s only child. James did have a much older son, also named James, from his first marriage to Rebecca Brien Howland. FDR’s brother, nicknamed “Rosy,” was born in 1854 — the same year as FDR’s mother.
Roosevelt’s father was a prominent Democrat who once took Franklin to meet President Grover Cleveland in the White House. The president said to him: “My little man, I am making a strange wish for you. It is that you may never be President of the United States.”
Collecting stamps was a lifelong passion for FDR.
He only took him three years to earn a bachelor’s degree in history from Harvard.
It was believed that Roosevelt had poliomyelitis which paralyzed him from the waist down in 1921. The media kept the information from the public until after his death. It is now thought that he had Guillain–Barré syndrome and not polio.
FDR was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 1920 with James M. Cox, governor of Ohio, as the party’s presidential pick. The pair lost out to Republican Warren Harding and his running mate Calvin Coolidge.
During a Miami rally held on February 15, 1933—less than a month before Roosevelt’s first term began—former bricklayer Giuseppe Zangara fired at FDR with a cheap revolver. “I like Roosevelt personally, but I don’t like presidents,” he claimed. Zangara shot five people attending the event, including Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, before he was subdued. He missed Roosevelt entirely.
The nineteenth amendment to the constitution, giving women the right to vote, was ratified on August 18, 1920. FDR was the first president whose mother voted for him.
FDR appointed Frances Perkins as Secretary of Labor, the first woman to hold a cabinet position.
FDR was the first president to actually speak on television. His speech at the opening session of the New York World’s Fair was telecasted on April 30, 1938.
Roosevelt died at Warm Springs, Georgia of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Eight presidents have died in office; FDR was one of the few to die from natural causes. (William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Warren G. Harding were the others.) Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy were assassinated.
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Sources:
Internet Public Library
biography.com
yurtopic.com
abc.net
Wikipedia/Paralytic illness
Greenman, Barbara. The Timeline History of U. S. Presidents and First Ladies. Thunder Bay Press, San Diego, California, 2009.