Picture courtesy of LucidCafe
Eleanor Roosevelt
1884-1962
(Anna) Eleanor Roosevelt was born on October 11, 1884 in New York to Elliott Roosevelt and Anna Hall Roosevelt. Her grandmother raised her after she lost both of her parents. (Mother at age 8; Father at age 10) At age 15, she was sent to a boarding school in England. When she returned home, she married her distant cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1905, who was later governor of New York and President of the United Sates. They had six children, and she slowly abandoned traditional roles and turned to politics and reform work.
She became involved with the League of Women Voters and the Women's Trade Union. When FDR was stricken w/ polio in 1921, she began to work on his behalf. She became his political representative when he was elected to the governorship of New York in 1928, and made frequent fact-finding trips during his term, and also during his presidency. As First lady, she went on nationwide lecture tours, and held over 350 press conferences for women reporters only. She wrote a daily newspaper column and articles for many magazines, and she was also a civil rights activist.
After her husband's death in 1945, President Truman named her US delegate to the United Nations General Assembly, and she served that post until 1951. In 1946 she was elected chairman of the UN's Human Rights Commission. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, was largely her work, and the delegates rose in a standing ovation for her. In 1961 she returned to the General Assembly, and later that year, President Kennedy appointed her head of the Commission on the Status of Women. She continued to be very active in politics and in work for international cooperation.
