After his reelection and the Yalta Conference the following February, Franklin retreated to a favorite residence in Warm Springs, Georgia, for rest. She was also determined that he would do good. WebMissy LeHand expresses her feelings to Martha. Rumors of their affair spread like wildfire, as she always conveniently visited the White House and Hyde Park when Eleanor was out of town. Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949. Her stress was a trigger for heart problems, say the series co-writers, adding that the medication LeHand took gave her mood swings, depression and anxiety. 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." Whatever his reasons, Franklin chose to reconcile with his wife and promise to stop seeing Mercer. 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. Web[Marguerite Alice LeHand, nicknamed "Missy" by the Roosevelt children, was the confidential private secretary of Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1920, when FDR campaigned for vice 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. Already getting in the party mood! According to the FDR Presidential Library and Museum, Franklin and Eleanor were acquainted as children but came to romance and courtship as young adults in 1902. that it would be best if you answered it now? she insisted. [4] In 1914, Mercer was hired by Eleanor Roosevelt to become her social secretary. Franklin Roosevelt had been conducting an affair with his wife's own secretary, Lucy Mercer. They mention her soft heart. She advocated unsuccessfully against the internment policy; when it went through, she kept up a pragmatic front in public speeches and mitigated and challenged interment where she could in private. WebMissy LeHand was FDRs longtime personal secretary and confidante. Alice Roosevelt Longworthdaughter of Theodore Roosevelt, and a cousin of Eleanor'sencouraged the affair, inviting Mercer and Franklin to dinner together several times. According to the real communique, Martha had told a Quaker she trusts that she wanted to return home. LeHand loved the president dearly, and Franklin was very fond of her. Sign up to get the latest news on your favorite dramas and mysteries, as well as exclusive content, video, sweepstakes and more. [1] Lucy had one sister, Violetta Carroll Mercer (18891947). UVA's Miller Center speculated that Sara Delano Roosevelt would likely have disapproved of any possible match for her son. Sometimes, these bled into public view. The Roosevelts' son James later described the state of the marriage after the incident as "an armed truce that endured until the day he died. The series creators/writers reveal whats real history and whats not. In June 1942, two squads of saboteursall U.S. residents who returned to Germany to serve the Reichwere dropped by U-boat on beaches in New York and Florida, respectively. "Your mother only bore you," she went so far as to tell young James Roosevelt. 'The bottom dropped out of my world,' she later said. She already resented having the timeline and circumstances of their engagement dictated by her future mother-in-law; with a lengthy cruise separating them, she wondered if Franklin might not return her affections afterwards. The pair is pictured in the Oval Office at the White House circa 1940, Lucy Mercer: The least disputed of Roosevelt's supposed affairs was with Lucy Mercer, his wife's social secretary when he was assistant secretary of the Navy in 1916. A few years later, when FDR contracted polio and was paralyzed from the waist down, their lives changed. But all three were grand enough to accommodate flaws. Missy LeHand The loneliness of leadership is a truism. She inquired if hed answered it. 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. Also by FDR's side when he died was Daisy Suckley, the president's sixth cousin and close confidant who is depicted in 'Hyde Park on the Hudson'. After a major White House renovation in 1934 Missy was moved into a prime office with a view of the rose garden, and a door that opened directly into the new and improved Oval Office. During the early days of their marriage, ER wrote her mother-in-law that the Jew party at Bernard Baruchs was appalling. Furthermore, Eleanor's discovery of the relationship and subsequent discussion of divorce with Franklin's mother are portrayed in the fourth episode of the Showtime series "The First Lady." He died on April 12, 1945 at the Little White House in Warms Spring, Georgia; the funeral took place on April 15 in Washington D.C. This knowledge did not keep him from straying again. When Germany unleashed its blitzkreig in 1939, the U.S.Army was only the 17th largest in the world. Her office also had a door leading to the garden, allowing unannounced visitors direct access to FDR when he didnt want their names showing up on the official White House registry. In her autobiographies she admitted to a tendency, when hurt or angry, to withdraw into a punishing silenceher Griselda mood, she called it. She was there when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Their relationship was a complicated one, marked by numerous episodes of hardship and heartbreak until Franklin's death in 1945. [39], In 1947, Rutherfurd's sister Violetta committed suicide after her husband requested a divorce, and only a month later, on Christmas Day 1947, her mother Minnie died at age 84. A novelist who has just spent several years with them tells a moving story of love: public and private, given and withheld, In the FDR Library in Hyde Park, among the effects of Anna Roosevelt Halsted, the only daughter of Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt, there is a scrap of yellowing paper, about four inches by five. Most historians date Lucy Mercers first visit to the White House, under her Secret Service code name of Mrs. Johnson, to August 1941. Dasch and his partner Ernst Burger (lower right) received prison sentences; the others were sentenced to death. In a review for the Washington Post, Stacy Schiff details the first lady's long-term relationship with reporter Lorena Hickok. But it wasn't only joyous choruses of "Wearing of the Green" that drew attention away from the bride and groom. 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. LeHand was romantically This eventually became the March of Dimes Foundation which funded the research that led to a polio vaccine in 1954. And biographer Hazel Rowley has speculated (via Roll Call) that Mercer's devout Catholic faith may have prevented a physical relationship. [20] Winthrop Rutherfurd had proposed to socialite Consuelo Vanderbilt (18771964) in 1896, only to see her social-climbing mother instead force her into marriage with Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough (18711934) (cousin to later British prime minister Winston Churchill). That is undoubtedly true. Eleanor also had to contend with her mother-in-law Sara Delano Roosevelt. 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. Whatever difficulties they had with intimacy, fidelity, and child-rearing, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were united as a political partnership. Historian/author Persico speculates that these letters may have been the cause of the 1927 nervous breakdown of Roosevelt's long-time unmarried first secretary Marguerite "Missy" LeHand (18981944), as LeHand was also reputedly in love with Roosevelt and no medical cause for her breakdown was found. [28] "No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. On June 4th, at a party in the White House, Missy collapsed, probably from a combination of a stroke and a heart attack. As a wedded couple, however, they encountered difficulties almost from the beginning, one of them in the bedroom. The Virginia Quarterly Reviewdescribes her as feeling rejected by her mother Anna Hall Roosevelt, who once told her that she must be good, as she was too plain to be anything else. Two weeks after the June collapse, LeHand suffered a major stroke and was never again able to speak intelligently. Missy had suffered from a bad heart from the time she was a little girl. hbspt.enqueueForm({ [22] The Rutherfurds had one child, Barbara Mercer Rutherfurd (June 14, 1922November 6, 2005),[23][24] who married Robert Winthrop "Bobby" Knowles, Jr. in 1946. See also "Miss LeHand: FDR's Influential and Largely Forgotten Assistant". I pitied Eleanor. She lived quietly, if splendidly, on a great estate in rural New Jersey and a handsome retreat in fashionable Aiken, South Carolina. I was more intrigued than ever. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelts evolving relationship with African Americans challenged her beliefs about herselfand the world she had been raised in. And every day they would gather for Childrens Hour and FDR would mix martinis or some other cocktail and they would drop the worlds woes and spend time gossiping, chatting, and generally having fun. On February 11, 1920, Mercer became his second wife. And there were scores of others. At nearly the same hour, forty-three-year-old Marguerite A. The Sad Truth About Franklin And Eleanor Roosevelt's Marriage, Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage. WebThe Missy LeHand Archive, comprising some 1,400 pieces, is the most important grouping of original documents still in private hands from such a central figure in FDRs political and personal life. It is generally accepted that their relationship contained a romantic element, though scholars remain divided on whether the pair had a sexual relationship. In their united efforts against Sara Roosevelt's resistance to her son's marriage, they demonstrated early on their skill as a goal-oriented partnership. She came to work for FDR as his private secretary at age 23 and stayed for more than 20 years. 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. [12], Franklin's mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, was adamantly against the idea of divorce, however, as it would mark the end of Franklin's political career; she stated that she would cut him off from the family fortune if he chose separation. Later, his two doctors - called in soon after the event - said he had suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage. My fascination with Eleanor Roosevelt dates back to my childhood. I became unpopular, Trohan continues. At the time, Theodore Roosevelt was still president of the United States and at the height of his popularity. She jogged into a car where the President was waiting behind the wheel. 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. Her name was Marguerite Alice LeHand, but everyone knew her as Missy. Harvey Shapiro, himself one of our most distinguished poets, examines a powerful and undervalued legacy. Eleanor Roosevelt, born in 1884, had the more difficult time of it. Home Movies Show the Private Lives of the Dont you think, Franklin, that you should answer it promptly? she urged. When FDR looked into Lucys eyes, he saw himself striding down Connecticut Avenue to the old State, War, and Navy Building, and loping across the sun-washed greens where hed played 18 holes of golf in the morning and another 18 in the afternoon, and doing a hundred things hed never given a thought to in the years before he was stricken. Her collapse actually occurred on June 4, 1941not on Christmas Eve and not with Martha present. Eleanor Roosevelt was 13 years into her marriage in 1918. 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.. ], FACT: Yes, its known as Operation Pastorius, says series co-writer and historian, Linda May Kallestein. [13] Persico also doubts that this was a factor, observing that Mercer's mother Minnie had divorced and remarried, and that the family had come to Roman Catholicism only recently. 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. Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage. It was a wifes revenge on her husband, for betraying her love, for falling short of her standards. My mother hated FDR. The noble woman was human. The Episode 6 scene of Roosevelt and Martha in a basement lockdown is fiction. 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. She made a point to be photographed with Japanese-Americans when she traveled to California after the attack. "I am more your mother than your mother is" (via "No Ordinary Time"). 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 am not talking about giving up a career to stay home and raise children, or nursing an aging parent, or other instances of worthy self-sacrifice. Debate over America's involvement in World War II came to a head in July 1941 as the Senate argued over a draft extension bill. In 2017, Barbara Collins Jacques donated to the FDR WebWidely considered the first female presidential chief of staff, Marguerite Missy LeHand was the right-hand woman to Franklin Delano Rooseveltboth personally and The correspondent most frequently focused on the romance angle was Walter Trohan of the Chicago Tribune. In Trohans memoir Political Animals, he describes receiving a tip in the fall of 1941 that the Crown Princess was visiting [the Presidents country home] Hyde Park every weekend without being on the guest list. To license content, please contact licenses [at] americanheritage.com. In her book The Gatekeeper,Kathryn Smith describes Missys role this way: Missy was the Swiss Army Knife of the White House. 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. By Paul M. Sparrow, Director, FDR Library. Only a sliding door separated 49 East 65th Street (Franklin and Eleanor's residence) from Sara's next door. 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). [8] Mercer and Franklin continued to see one another privately, causing widespread gossip in Washington. What should have been their day alone ended up with the two of them practically ignored. formId: "5b72fde8-e7e4-4048-9244-483412ab8fe3", They speak of her need to make surroundings beautiful, and days bright, and loved ones glad to be alive. I mean a contagious genius for living joyously. If FDR was incapable of giving love, as many close to him believed, perhaps ER was equally incapable of receiving it. Three Decades Ago This Magazine Launched a Durable American Trend, For 70 years, American Heritage has been the leading magazine of U.S. history, politics, and culture. Kathryn Smith is a biographer and author of The Gatekeeper: Missy LeHand, FDR and the Untold Story of the Partnership that Defined a Presidency (Simon &Schuster, 2016). Everywhere I looked for Lucy, there stood ER, larger than life, better than good, generous, high-minded, selfless. They insisted every man she met fell in love with her. Yet a strong partnership in political matters, shared membership in the storied Roosevelt dynasty, and six children did not make Franklin and Eleanor's a happy marriage. For example, FDR's principal strategist and trusted adviser, Louis Howe, lived in the White House from 1933 until his death in 1936 as did FDR's secretary Missy LeHand who stayed until she suffered a stroke in 1941. the grandniece of Marguerite A. [37][38] Finding Shoumatoff's unfinished preliminary watercolor among Franklin's possessions some time later however, she mailed it to Rutherfurd, to which Rutherfurd responded with a warm letter of thanks and condolences. Her relationship with Eleanor cooled when her mother learned Anna arranged Mercers clandestine visits, but the pair later co-hosted a radio discussion show. [2] Though they were both from wealthy, well-connected families, Mercer's parents lost their fortune through the Financial Panic of 1893 and subsequent great recession/depression which curtailed their lavish spending. Even Earl Miller, the slippery, selfaggrandizing New York State trooper who started as her bodyguard, was unstinting in his devotion. WebMissy once said he was really incapable of a personal friendship with anyone. Some found him almost sadistic. Revealed: All 76 bank branches that are shutting its doors this month in blow to the High Street Met Gala 2023 live: Rihanna finally arrives! [39][44] When the news of the memoir's contents broke, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. (19141988), said that he had no knowledge of an affair between Rutherfurd and his father,[45] while Rutherfurd's daughter Barbara flatly denied that any such romance had occurred. Roosevelt left Missy half of his $3 million estate. Polio struck without warning on August 10, 1921, while he was vacationing at his home on Campobello Island in Canada. The story of Chicago in the nineteenth century is the story of the making of America, Donald L. Miller says. 17:41 25 Nov 2012, updated 13:35 18 Sep 2014. [8][9] Franklin was at that time the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and Mercer was assigned to his office. She quickly became an established part of the Roosevelt household, and good friends with Eleanor. This small group included Grace Tully, Louis Howe, Harry Hopkins, Marvin McIntyre, and Steve Early. 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. But the woman who is perhaps least remembered but most Continue reading 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 a short period of time she became the most famous secretary in America. Joseph Lash was a faithful intimate during ERs life and an excellent friend in the books he wrote about her after her death. As the years passed, she developed a resigned and cynical attitude toward intercourse with her husband. Missy LeHand, FDR's closest companion for two decades, was crippled by a stroke followed by a nervous breakdown. But FDR never gave up on her. . She showed no hesitation in using the sliding door to come and go as she pleased. The Gatekeeper: Missy LeHand, FDR, and the Untold Story Missy It begins, ER: her garlic pills (Sis could smell them on her breath).. #Roosevelts on Film - FDR Presidential Library & Museum Missy arrived in Washington to much fanfare and excitement. * [Contains spoilers. 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. Her relationship with FDR transcended her role as his secretary. 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. "[10], In 1918, Franklin went on a trip to Europe to inspect naval facilities for the war. Lucy Mercer had a talent, though it is not one held in high regard today. It rotted in the basement. When I looked at their early prejudices, I saw signposts indicating how far they had traveled. 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. 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. Admirers compared her voice to velvet and swore her smile was radiant. WebBeing obsessed with all things Roosevelt, I was thrilled to see a biography about Marguerite Missy LeHand, President Franklin D. Roosevelts personal secretary. 'I face myself, my surroundings, my world, honestly for the first time.'. WebBesides children and grandchildren, several other longtime aides and friends also lived in the White House during the Roosevelt years. He paid all of her medical bills and changed his will so that half of the proceeds of his estate would go to help support her until she died. A nationwide gene-purity movement promoted methods that eventually were adopted by the Third Reich. WebMore About a Remarkable Donation. The Quaker was Malcolm R. Lovell, a double agent who worked closely with German diplomat Hans Thomsen. In 2010 when those papers finally came to the FDR Library they were known as the Grace Tully Collection, but most of them were really Missys papers. He made no attempt to conceal his feelings about Missy.'. However, she ultimately relented and set up a meeting in Georgetown. For 21 years, Marguerite LeHand was Franklin Delano Roosevelts secretary, nurse, cheerleader, adviser and possibly lover. 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. From initial encounters during the 1932 presidential campaign, Hickok would eventually take up residence in the White House near Eleanor's rooms. FDR And His Women - AMERICAN HERITAGE 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. LeHand's work on the campaign and her evident personal devotion to FDR caught the eye of the Roosevelts. In early 1921, FDR hired her as his personal secretary and she moved to New York where Roosevelt practiced law and served as Vice President of the Fidelity and Deposit Company. The remained with her until her death, and in 2010 they finally arrived at the FDR Library as the Grace Tully Collection. . portalId: 20973928, It was then that their relationship became more unconventional. 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. He replied that no one did, but that ER, who was breathtakingly generous to those in need, often turned away from those who no longer needed her. 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. 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. 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. [40][41] Rutherfurd is buried, along with her husband, in Green Township, New Jersey. 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. "Attention and admiration were the things through all my childhood which I wanted," Eleanor later remarked, "because I was made to feel that nothing about me would attract attention or bring me admiration.". [citation needed], Following Roosevelt's death, his administration concealed from the press the fact that Rutherfurd had been present during his death, fearing the scandal that would ensue. The U-boat surfaced not far from where Martha was staying in Long Island that summer.. In A First Class Temperament, Geoffrey C. Ward recounts a telling conversation between the young FDR and his wife. A soldier-historian looks at how the world has changed in the past decade and finds that America is both hostage to history and likely to be saved by it. Her personal conduct was no less inspiring; she was the embodiment of one of her husbands favorite wordsgrand. 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. As a young Assistant Secretary of the Navy, FDR returned home each evening to a high-minded wife who was continually reminding him that he hadnt mailed the $50 hed blithely pledged to a hospital for immigrant children or that the story he told about his conversion to woman suffrage was more vivid than accurate.