It is generally accepted that their relationship contained a romantic element, though scholars remain divided on whether the pair had a sexual relationship. 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 James Cox was the democratic candidate for President, and it was widely assumed he would lose to the Republican candidate Senator Warren Harding. His health had declined throughout World War II. Her relationship with FDR transcended her role as his secretary. Nonetheless, FDR had his standards of conduct. And biographer Hazel Rowley has speculated (via Roll Call) that Mercer's devout Catholic faith may have prevented a physical relationship. She was a devoted and successful mother to five stepchildren and one biological daughter, all of whom adored her. 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. Missy LeHand, FDR's closest companion for two decades, was crippled by a stroke followed by a nervous breakdown. That there was genuine affection between Franklin and Mercer is evident, however, as is the devastation the affair brought to Eleanor. 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." She made a point to be photographed with Japanese-Americans when she traveled to California after the attack. 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." WebThe exact nature of FDR's relationship with LeHand's is debated by historians, but it is generally accepted that there was an element of romance. The two were from separate branches of the Roosevelt clan, fifth cousins once removed. LeHand dropped unconscious at the end of a late dinner with White House staff. She had emerged from a tragic, if gilded, childhood to embrace the underdog, speak up for the disenfranchised, and battle tirelessly for human dignity. He was physically fearless, but he could be emotionally craven. Both were dedicated to the idea of public service and worked to lead America out of the Great Depression. After his reelection and the Yalta Conference the following February, Franklin retreated to a favorite residence in Warm Springs, Georgia, for rest. 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. "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.". FDR expressed a longing for white asparagus. Franklin Roosevelt had been conducting an affair with his wife's own secretary, Lucy Mercer. Mrs. Nesbitt told him it was unavailable, though when his secretaries chipped in to buy some, they managed to find it in the local stores. Their marriage may have been a failure, but their partnership was a triumph. After his reelection in 1930 he became the most activist governor in the country. [40][41] Rutherfurd is buried, along with her husband, in Green Township, New Jersey. "[16] Eleanor later wrote, "I have the memory of an elephant. Just a few months later FDR would be stricken with polio, and Missy would become his companion and gatekeeper. 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. 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." 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. She came to work for FDR as his private secretary at age 23 and stayed for more than 20 years. Subscribe to the MASTERPIECE email newsletter for weekly show news, schedule updates, and features on shows including Tom Jones. Missy suffered a terrible stroke in 1941 and left the White House, so her assistant Grace Tully took over for her. Winthrop Rutherfurd died in March 1944 after a long illness. FDR was physically fearless, but he could be emotionally craven. But when the book was published, she denied the affair, even though Potter claimed she had reviewed the manuscript and never asked to have that information retracted. Rutherfurd is portrayed by Maria Dizzia. On the rare occasions when she was less than that, ER owned up to her failings scrupulously. [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. In the years before widespread birth control for women, sex was coupled with potential pregnancy, and the one surefire prevention abstinence was rarely appreciated by young husbands with healthy sexual appetites, as Franklin was. 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. Then it would revert back to Eleanor. [3] The pair separated shortly after Lucy's birth, and Carroll became an alcoholic. Polio struck without warning on August 10, 1921, while he was vacationing at his home on Campobello Island in Canada. Fierce opposition came from Franklin's political advisor, Louis Howe, and from his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt. Dont, I murmured when on FDRs first presidential visit to Campobello a dozen years after hed been stricken with polio and carried off the island on a stretcher, she scolded him publicly for bringing the assembled guests to the dinner table late. [25][26], Despite Roosevelt's promise to Eleanor, he kept in contact with Lucy Rutherfurd after her marriage, corresponding with her by letter throughout the 1920s. 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. I wrote all this in the newspaper. More than this, she referred to them as her own. He provided for her in his will, but she suffered a stroke in 1941 and predeceased him. As Lucy realizes in my book, if you cannot accept imperfections, you cannot loveor, I would add, write history, biography, or fiction. Daisy Bonner, who cooked for Franklin Roosevelt for twenty years in the Georgia White House, recalled his favorite dish. And what was the future First Lady who would champion female equality doing opposing woman suffrage? [1] Lucy had one sister, Violetta Carroll Mercer (18891947). I discovered secrets I wanted to sweep under the rug. WebIts true that in his spare time between 1941-1945, FDRs most frequent companion was Martha, though others were often with them as well. Marguerite LeHand, Personal Secretary to President Franklin spearheaded the New Deal and set an optimistic tone for the country through his speeches and "fireside chat" radio messages, while Eleanor advocated for her husband's policies and reached out to Americans through her newspaper columns and travels. He always enjoyed other peoples discomfort, Averell Harriman Missy had suffered from a bad heart from the time she was a little girl. This was in part a matter of logistics; some of these trips were to do with Franklin's rehabilitation from polio, while Eleanor had the family to look after. She told a friend she had burned FDRs letters, though I do not believe that for a moment. Each left their mark as individuals, Franklin Roosevelt as New York governor and as the longest-serving United States president, and Eleanor Roosevelt as the longest-serving first lady and as first U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Just in the late 1920s, Hazel Rowley (via NPR) documents 116 weeks that Franklin was gone. He replied that it had. But she did. 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. WebWidely considered the first female presidential chief of staff, Marguerite Missy LeHand was the right-hand woman to Franklin Delano Rooseveltboth personally and It was a wifes revenge on her husband, for betraying her love, for falling short of her standards. [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. Per NPR's review of the book "Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage," she engineered a cruise with herself, Franklin, and Franklin's best friend that winter, a move that left Eleanor worried. 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] His team included Louis Howe, Frances Perkins, Sam Rosenman, and of course Missy. 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 The loneliness of leadership is a truism. 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. In doing so, he hoped to receive clemency and resume his life in America. 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. Both branches of the Roosevelt family enjoyed wealth and privilege, yet the future first family were raised in markedly different circumstances. Fact or Fiction: FDR's private secretary Missy LeHand suffered a sudden collapse at a White House dinner. portalId: 20973928, In the same letter, she admitted that she had been reading over some very old letters of his.. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. He was so engrossed in his work and campaigns that he hadn't the time to spare, and he believed not unusually for his time that it was the job of the mother to raise the children, or at least to hire a nanny to handle them. She was, to begin with, a researchers nightmare. Sara Roosevelt's attentions helped give her son a happy childhood, but she remained protective of him well into adulthood, a tendency that would later mar his marriage to Eleanor. Attention and admiration were not things a young Franklin Roosevelt needed to worry about. Shoumatoff's presence became known, and she gave a press conference to address questions, but managed to hide Rutherfurd's role, which was even not mentioned in early post-war biographies and administration histories for almost two decades. Per the Washington Post, Eleanor burned the love letters she uncovered from Mercer to Franklin. 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. 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. 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. 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. The context of Eleanor's attitude is worth bearing in mind. 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. While the letters are suggestive, some historians say argue they do not provide hard evidence of a physical love affair. Even Earl Miller, the slippery, selfaggrandizing New York State trooper who started as her bodyguard, was unstinting in his devotion. A military tribunal later found all eight men guilty. My discovery of Lucy Mercer, FDRs great love, complicated the story and humanized the characters. 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. To license content, please contact licenses [at] americanheritage.com. But the siren call of political life drew FDR back into the arena and in 1928 he ran for Governor of New York and won. [14], In the end, Franklin appears to have told Mercer disingenuously that Eleanor was not willing to grant a divorce. Joseph Lash was a faithful intimate during ERs life and an excellent friend in the books he wrote about her after her death. 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] FDR was not the sexual rake certain historians have made him out to be, but he did subscribe to the philosophy of the E. Y. Harburg song that would appear the year after his death, When Im not near the girl I love, I love the girl Im near. Missy once said he was really incapable of a personal friendship with anyone. Some found him almost sadistic. 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 - [36] The two women, Mercer and Shoumatoff, immediately packed and left the cottage. At nearly the same hour, forty-three-year-old Marguerite A. Those were Groton idealstaught by youI try not to forget- and your words are still with me and with hundreds of other of us boys. These were without doubt the most difficult years of his life, and those who were with him during that period became his most trusted confidants and advisers. . See also "Miss LeHand: FDR's Influential and Largely Forgotten Assistant". (Mostly) FICTION: A similar telegram existed, but American intelligence never caught it nor implemented security measures based on it, say Atlantic Crossing co-writers; their research revealed the telegram became known only after the war. 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. Biographer Hazel Rowley wrote (via Roll Call) that Franklin Roosevelt remained in his marriage after his affair with Lucy Mercer was discovered because he "still loved Eleanor. He left the table to answer the letter. 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. And there were scores of others. My study of the presidential chronology disclosed a meeting on June 5 of the same year. FACT: The American press wrote openly about the amount of time FDR spent with Martha, says series creator, director, co-writer and executive producer, Alexander Eik. [45] Well-known historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (19172007) stated of the affair that if Rutherfurd "in any way helped Franklin Roosevelt sustain the frightful burdens of leadership in the second world war, the nation has good reason to be grateful to her."[46]. When his half-nephew Taddy ran off with a woman from New Yorks Tenderloin district called Dutch Sadie, he wrote to his mother from Harvard that one can never again consider him a true Roosevelt. The years tempered his priggishness. 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 Gatekeeper," Marguerite Missy LeHand and FDR at the White House, 1940. I knew her father had died of alcoholism, and her uncles had drunkenly fired hunting rifles at her from the windows of her grandmothers house. A formidable, multitalented multitasker.. 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. She was 47 years old. She was there when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. 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. Funding for MASTERPIECE is provided by Viking and Raymond James, with additional support from public television viewers and contributors to The Masterpiece Trust, created to help ensure the series' future. I identified with them both. Sara insisted that the couple delay their marriage by one year. When one of their children died in infancy, Eleanor fell into such deep mourning that she later wrote of feeling a bitterness toward her husband for a time. Throughout her life, ER blamed her early inadequacy as a mother for her childrens unhappiness and took on radio engagements, writing assignments, and other endeavors to further their careers and shore up their finances. ' He also had a simple and unshakable faith in God. She called the White House and her former assistant Grace Tully took a message for the President, but he did not call her back that day. Together they saw the White House through the Great Depression and World War II, and their separate and joint efforts to combat both issues reshaped the office of the presidency and the role of the first lady. FDR and Marshall had to build a fighting force able to take on the Nazis, against the wishes of many in Congress. 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. 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. Getting to know FDR, ER, and Lucy Mercer was not an unalloyed pleasure. Despite all of her work in helping bring FDRs dream of a presidential library to fruition, on June 30th, 1941, when it was dedicated, Missy was not there. For 21 years, Marguerite LeHand was Franklin Delano Roosevelts secretary, nurse, cheerleader, adviser and possibly lover. Mercer left Washington after the affair and became the governess for the children of Winthrop Rutherfurd (18621944), a wealthy New York socialite. For comparison, Franklin's secretary, Missy LeHand, was with him for 110 weeks. The noble woman was human. They insisted every man she met fell in love with her. As she had cherished Franklin, Sara showered affection on her grandchildren. "[10], In 1918, Franklin went on a trip to Europe to inspect naval facilities for the war. 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. According to William E. Leuchtenburg of UVA's Miller Center, Franklin was largely isolated on the family's Hyde Park estate in New York, educated by private tutors. But the woman who is perhaps least remembered but most important was Marguerite Missy LeHand, his personal secretary and closest confidant for more than 20 years. the grandniece of Marguerite A. 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. A nationwide gene-purity movement promoted methods that eventually were adopted by the Third Reich. During their engagement she wrote to her future husband, Sometimes I think that a womans moods are sent her just as a mans temptations are.. I naturally fell for him. In a short period of time she became the most famous secretary in America. But this was FDRs first shot at national political office and he went at it with his trademark gusto. Franklin and Eleanor were acquainted as children but came to romance and courtship as young adults in 1902. Du Bois supported it. He started the first unemployment program and fought a corruption scandal with the mayor of New York. [35], In early April 1945, Anna arranged for Rutherfurd to come over from her South Carolina estate in Aiken to meet her father at his "Little White House" in Warm Springs, Georgia, the small plain rustic cottage built at the polio therapy center by the heated mineral water springs resort that Roosevelt helped develop beginning in the 1920s. 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 In a review for the Washington Post, Stacy Schiff details the first lady's long-term relationship with reporter Lorena Hickok. Franklin Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, not long after his election to an unprecedented fourth term as president. There was more heartbreak waiting for Eleanor when she arrived in Warm Springs. Several of them actually lived in the White House at one time or another. 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. 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. 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. Many cabinet secretaries, congressmen, senators and ambassadors courted favor with Missy in an attempt to gain access to the president. Just seven months later, Rutherfurd herself died from leukemia, aged 57, on July 31, 1948, just .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}3+14 years after Roosevelt, having destroyed almost all of her correspondence with the president. 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. Goodwin writes in No Ordinary Time that it was disturbing for Missy to be replaced by another woman.. [15] He and Eleanor remained married, and he pledged never to see Mercer again. 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.

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