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. The remained with her until her death, and in 2010 they finally arrived at the FDR Library as the Grace Tully Collection. It took a heavy toll physically and emotionally. Where Franklin believed that the war effort superseded civil liberties, Eleanor argued that wartime was when belief in the Bill of Rights most counted. 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. 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. Her name was Marguerite Alice LeHand, but everyone knew her as Missy. 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. 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. At nearly the same hour, forty-three-year-old Marguerite A. Although her official title as personal secretary was relatively humble, her power and influence were unparalleled. 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. Their marriage may have been a failure, but their partnership was a triumph. [42] Roosevelt's second private secretary Grace Tully (19001984), who had also been at Warm Springs at the time of his death, did briefly mention Rutherfurd's presence in F.D.R., My Boss, her 1949 memoir, but gave no further hint of the relationship. But didnt she understand that her husband desperately needed a brief escape from the burden of reopening the banks and dreaming up Lend-Lease and responding to the worst naval defeat in Americas history? Grace Tully described Missy as the Queen of the White House staff, and her authority was rarely challenged. WebBeing obsessed with all things Roosevelt, I was thrilled to see a biography about Marguerite Missy LeHand, President Franklin D. Roosevelts personal secretary. 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. Missy suffered a terrible stroke in 1941 and left the White House, so her assistant Grace Tully took over for her. 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] The more I admired the three of them, the less I wanted to gloss over their faults. If Lucy Mercers art was living, the medium in which she worked was personal and the scale miniature. Aware of Rutherfurd's role in her parents' early marriage, Anna was at first angry that her father had put her in such a difficult position. I was more intrigued than ever. ER relied upon the kindness and sustenance of her friends, especially her women friends. [8], In June 1917, Mercer quit or was fired from her job with Eleanor and enlisted in the US Navy, which was then mobilizing for World War I. 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.". 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. A Vermont Farmer Preserved the Worlds Most Ephemeral Art for Posterity. 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. 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. The affair lasted two years, with one of his friends posing as Mercer's escort. Her descendants speak of the insouciance with which she met early hardship. The story of Chicago in the nineteenth century is the story of the making of America, Donald L. Miller says. At a time when interest in their war just keeps on rising, why arent Americas World War II poets better remembered? The princess called Roosevelt by the nickname 'Dear Godfather,' and friends said they were very flirtatious towards one another. The decision would have profound consequences for the nation. [3] The pair separated shortly after Lucy's birth, and Carroll became an alcoholic. Already getting in the party mood! By the time of his final campaign in 1944, many noted his gaunt appearance and declining faculties, according to UVA's Miller Center. FACT: Though not as depicted in Atlantic Crossing. . [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. WebThe Roosevelts were the ultimate power couple during the first half of the 20th century. She would be the first woman to hold the position of the secretary to the president. 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). Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously did his very best to control his public image. Although her official title as personal secretary was relatively humble, her power and influence were unparalleled. [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. If FDR was incapable of giving love, as many close to him believed, perhaps ER was equally incapable of receiving it. Her collapse actually occurred on June 4, 1941not on Christmas Eve and not with Martha present. In doing so, he hoped to receive clemency and resume his life in America. He made no attempt to conceal his feelings about Missy.'. Though he didnt mind others uneasiness, his need to charm was so great that he hated saying no to people. Rutherfurd is portrayed by Maria Dizzia. She came to work for FDR as his private secretary at age 23 and stayed for more than 20 years. But the demands ER made on herself could take a fearful toll on others, especially the man with whom she had linked her destiny when she was only 20 and he had just turned 23. The affair lasted 20 years, according to some, and it was cataloged in a book written by FDR's son Elliott, who said the relationship was common knowledge. Missy arrived in Washington to much fanfare and excitement. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelts evolving relationship with African Americans challenged her beliefs about herselfand the world she had been raised in. 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. 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. Lucy Mercer had a contagious genius for living joyously. ], FACT: Yes, its known as Operation Pastorius, says series co-writer and historian, Linda May Kallestein. On February 11, 1920, Mercer became his second wife. FDR was convinced he had found a new form of therapy. "The Gatekeeper," Marguerite Missy LeHand and FDR at the White House, 1940. 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 The year 1924 also introduced FDR to Warm Spring Georgia, where he would focus his efforts on findingan effective cure for polio and provide a world class rehabilitation clinic for its victims. 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. hbspt.enqueueForm({ Whatever his reasons, Franklin chose to reconcile with his wife and promise to stop seeing Mercer. But she did. . "I am more your mother than your mother is" (via "No Ordinary Time"). One such instance was over the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. 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 become romances. One of many women: Franklin D. Roosevelt was said to have carried on a 20-year affair with his secretary, Marguerite 'Missy' LeHand. But while the two shared a broadly liberal vision of the United States, they had areas of strong political disagreement. 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 become romances. Fierce opposition came from Franklin's political advisor, Louis Howe, and from his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt left Missy half of his $3 million estate. Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949. Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage. Both were dedicated to the idea of public service and worked to lead America out of the Great Depression. "Your mother only bore you," she went so far as to tell young James Roosevelt. He was married to Eleanor. A formidable, multitalented multitasker.. One afternoon while I was touring Val-Kill, the cottage in Hyde Park that ER set up for herself after she had given up the house shed originally built with her friends Nancy Cook and Marion Dickerman, I asked a noted Roosevelt scholar if he knew the reason for the rupture. Grace performed dictation and typing, managed the President's mail, and served as primary files manager for the White House. Mercer stayed in FDR's life until his death in 1945, and she was with him when he took his last breaths, even though she eventually married another man. She made other people happy. When FDR died, Grace Tully ended up with all of the papers that she and Missy had collected over the years. But the woman who is perhaps least remembered but most Continue reading And while she clearly had her favorites, she was widely respected for her fairness and devotion to the presidents needs. . LeHand was romantically FDR's Indispensable Right-Hand Woman Portrayed Unfairly Again. 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. She lived quietly, if splendidly, on a great estate in rural New Jersey and a handsome retreat in fashionable Aiken, South Carolina. [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). Most historians date Lucy Mercers first visit to the White House, under her Secret Service code name of Mrs. Johnson, to August 1941. Her parents squandered a fortune with stunning panache, and one morning she and her sister awakened to find they were stranded penniless at their convent school in Austria. [15] He and Eleanor remained married, and he pledged never to see Mercer again. He maintained a relationship with his secretary Marguerite "Missy" LeHand. 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. Hers was the ONLY office with such a door. She was dubbed FDRs Right Hand Woman and when Eleanor traveled Missy would act as the hostess for dinners and other social events. 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. It takes place during the June 1939 weekend that the British king and queen visited Roosevelt at his upstate New York cottage in Hyde Park, where FDR was said to take a number of mistresses. Yet after more than 10 years of marriage to a wife whom he would always respect and revere, he broke the rules of God and man and fell in love with another woman. Born in 1882, he was the only child of James Roosevelt and Sara Delano. Her relationship with FDR transcended her role as his secretary. On the other hand, her son James Roosevelt (quoted by Rowley) thought that his mother may have had an affair with her young bodyguard, the New York state trooper Earl Miller. 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. When he returned in September, sick with pneumonia in both lungs, Eleanor discovered a packet of love letters from Mercer in his suitcase. His team included Louis Howe, Frances Perkins, Sam Rosenman, and of course Missy. 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. I shared her frustration when FDR declined to make an antilynching law a top priority, and refused to open the door to the Jewish victims of Hitlers persecutions, but wasnt she sufficiently astute to appreciate the adage that to be a great statesman, one must first be a good politician? [1] Lucy had one sister, Violetta Carroll Mercer (18891947). 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. WebBesides children and grandchildren, several other longtime aides and friends also lived in the White House during the Roosevelt years. She speaks of how much you have given . Missy lived with her sister and two nieces for several years, and finally passed away on July 31, 1944. Thus was born a truly remarkable partnership. 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. FDR would visit her for short periods of time while he fought a global war, and the old Childrens Hour gang kept her company. Just a few months later FDR would be stricken with polio, and Missy would become his companion and gatekeeper. Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage. Miss LeHand: FDR's Influential and Largely Forgotten Assistant, Missy LeHand: FDR's Influential but Largely Forgotten Assistant. (If FDR had not fallen in love with Lucy Mercer, ER might never have become a force for peace and social justice. Although Missy had little contact with FDR, she worked closely with the inner circle of FDR advisers including Louie Howe, Steve Early, and Marvin McIntyre. Her relationship with her father was much warmer, but Elliott Roosevelt gradually succumbed to alcoholism. "[17] The incident marked a turning point in her life; disillusioned with her marriage, she became active in public life, and focused increasingly on her social work rather than her role as a wife.[18][19]. Dont you think, Franklin, that you should answer it promptly? she urged. 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. Later, his two doctors - called in soon after the event - said he had suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage. The difference of several weeks would not seem important but for who else was in the White House at the time. Eleanor discovered the affair in in 1918 when she found love letters in her husband's suitcase. Yet when I came across it, I heard the subversive rasp of a key turning in a lock. She showed no hesitation in using the sliding door to come and go as she pleased. According to Joseph Alsop, a Roosevelt cousin and political columnist, ER had a downright ghastly childhood and youth, while FDR had an immensely happy childhood and a youth altogether comfortable and if anything overprotected. She had a long face and a prominent jaw and nose, but a sweetness of expression that spoke of her good nature. He knew what he owed to her; he knew how much he needed her." Perhaps FDRs charm did mask an emotional iciness, and ERs high-mindedness did make her almost as hard on others as she was on herself, and Lucys ability to live a gilded life while one-third of the nation was ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished was unconscionable. STill, if FDR could not save his wife, he did not have to betray her. 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. 'The bottom dropped out of my world,' she later said. On June 4th, at a party in the White House, Missy collapsed, probably from a combination of a stroke and a heart attack. Over the years FDR would invest a good portion of his fortune into Warm Springs, and created the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation which raised millions of dollars for polio research. Just what the nature of that affair was is unknown and never will be. . It was then that their relationship became more unconventional. [27] 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. When his terrifying mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, bullied his young wife, he refused to take sides. Missy had suffered from a bad heart from the time she was a little girl. 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. Franklin D. Roosevelt (c. 1919) and Eleanor Roosevelt (1933), Marriage and continued contact with Roosevelt, Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough, his first memorable presidential inauguration, "Franklin Roosevelt Was Not Diplomatic as Wife", "FDR's Secret Love: How Roosevelt's lifelong affair might have changed the course of a century", "Paid Notice: Deaths KNOWLES, BARBARA RUTHERFURD", "MISS RUTHERFURD BECOMES FIANCEE; BETROTHED | Member of Noted Family WIll Be Wed to Robert Winthrop Knowles, Jr. of Boston", "MISS RUTHERFURD MARRIED IN AIKEN; Fermata School Graduate the Bride of Robert W. Knowles Jr., Former Service Man", "February 2011: FDR Letters to Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd", "Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Boettiger Halsted (1906-1975)", "New light on the revelations of Franklin Roosevelt's 30-year affection for Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd", Military history of the United States during World War II, Springwood birthplace, home, and gravesite, Little White House, Warm Springs, Georgia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lucy_Mercer_Rutherfurd&oldid=1152540330, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 30 April 2023, at 21:24. WebMore About a Remarkable Donation. The better I got to know the woman whom I had been raised to revere, the more I marveled at her achievements and squirmed in her presence. Sara insisted that the couple delay their marriage by one year. Then it would revert back to Eleanor. Sign up to get the latest news on your favorite dramas and mysteries, as well as exclusive content, video, sweepstakes and more. Could any husband, or any other human being, have healed ERs wounds? Then there was Mrs. Nesbitt. FDR and Marshall had to build a fighting force able to take on the Nazis, against the wishes of many in Congress. Her film collection documents social activities from a Roosevelt inner circle perspective, and bring new 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. Roosevelt faced the challenges of a widened war at the moment when he lost a key member of his circle. She was a devoted and successful mother to five stepchildren and one biological daughter, all of whom adored her. According to the real communique, Martha had told a Quaker she trusts that she wanted to return home. 'I have longed to have you with me,' he wrote in one letter from a cruise to Panama. Admirers compared her voice to velvet and swore her smile was radiant. Now in his fifties, Rutherfurd was considered one of society's most eligible widowers. 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. In a tragic situation that tested all three individuals, each behaved with honor and dignity. 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. [21] Franklin Roosevelt learned of the marriage by overhearing news of it at a party. Both parents were dead by the time Eleanor was 10, leaving her and her brothers in the care of their strict grandmother. Two weeks after the June collapse, LeHand suffered a major stroke and was never again able to speak intelligently. They speak of her need to make surroundings beautiful, and days bright, and loved ones glad to be alive. The noble woman was human. (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. The historical consensus is that Lucy Mercer gave FDR the unquestioning adoration ER could not. The Episode 6 scene of Roosevelt and Martha in a basement lockdown is fiction. Alice Roosevelt Longworthdaughter of Theodore Roosevelt, and a cousin of Eleanor'sencouraged the affair, inviting Mercer and Franklin to dinner together several times. 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. Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd (ne Lucy Page Mercer; April 26, 1891 July 31, 1948) was an American woman who was best known for her affair with US president Franklin D. Roosevelt. I became unpopular, Trohan continues. 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." That glimpse of a vigorous ambulatory self was not the only reason he returned to her at the end, but surely it was a happy side effect. 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. FDR expressed a longing for white asparagus. All three lingered in my consciousness long after the need for adolescent mutiny faded. 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. My study of the presidential chronology disclosed a meeting on June 5 of the same year. 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. As Lucy realizes in my book, if you cannot accept imperfections, you cannot loveor, I would add, write history, biography, or fiction. [11] Eleanor subsequently offered her husband a divorce. The blog of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. Eleanor Roosevelt, born in 1884, had the more difficult time of it. LeHand dropped unconscious at the end of a late dinner with White House staff. However, she ultimately relented and set up a meeting in Georgetown. I discovered secrets I wanted to sweep under the rug. "[10], In 1918, Franklin went on a trip to Europe to inspect naval facilities for the war. Franklin Roosevelt had been conducting an affair with his wife's own secretary, Lucy Mercer. [5] According to historians Joseph Persico and Hazel Rowley, the affair between Mercer and Franklin likely began in 1916, when Eleanor and the children were vacationing at Campobello Island to avoid the summer heat, while Franklin remained in Washington, D.C.[6][7] In 1917, Franklin often included Mercer in his summer yachting parties, which Eleanor usually declined to attend. He left the table to answer the letter. The demands Eleanor Roosevelt made on herself could take a fearful toll on others, especially her husband. the grandniece of Marguerite A. Winthrop Rutherfurd died in March 1944 after a long illness. During World War II, this couple of 40 years sometimes couldn't manage a conversation except through secretaries. 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.
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