PART V Chap Twenty- The Unlikely Prophet

Part V

Chapter 20

The Unlikely Prophet

Eleanor Roosevelt Roosevelt

“Nothing we learn in this world is ever wasted and I have come to the conclusion that practically nothing we do ever stands by itself. If it is good, it will serve some good purpose in the future. If it is evil, it may haunt us and handicap our efforts in unimagined ways.”

                                                                                                                  Eleanor Roosevelt

Two dozen or more well-dressed adults jam into a smoke-filled New York apartment living room, each waiting quietly for their gathering to begin. Dressed in a variety of fashions, some quite exotic, they are from all over the world, and only a few speak English fluently. There is mild tension from the discomfort of diversity, of strangers in a small space, all hearing strange languages. Meanwhile a wonderful aroma spills into the room from the kitchen, which entices a few smiles of anticipation. Each person is someone important back home, but here they are merely humble guests, invited into a woman’s home for tea…

And to discuss the fate of peace in the world. The hostess is Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady, now a United Nations delegate, and popular newspaper columnist, and humanitarian and... a mother.

Eleanor winds through her company as if it is lady’s social, making sure her guests are comfortable, greeting everyone with a huge smile and a diplomatic handshake. Capitalist sits next to Communist, aristocrat next to emissary, everyone crowding in good-naturedly to hear what is being said. Eleanor welcomes her guests, and explains in her high-pitched quasi-British accent that she wanted to bring everyone together in less formal conditions.

So much is at stake, someone suggests they must do everything as representatives of their various countries to achieve world peace… Everyone nods. A Middle Eastern man has spilled his coffee on his own knee. A woman hands him a fresh napkin. They are after all, just people. People upon whom the world awaits the working of a diplomatic miracle, to find common ground, to establish a forum for the world’s governments to work together. To, among other things, avoid nuclear war and the extermination of mankind.

Eleanor takes her chair in the reluctant huddle… as one of the delegates stands up and goes in for seconds. Eleanor Roosevelt has meekly and masterfully laid the foundations for the informal social fabric which would bind the United Nations, and eventually envision an International Bill of Human Rights. They will even bring hope of peace to a war-torn world.

Tall and awkward, with an unmistakable wrinkled, toothy expression, Eleanor Roosevelt was already the most recognizable woman on the planet. For decades she was voted the most admired woman in the Country and recognized around the world as well.

Amazingly, she never wanted any of it. She had simply done each day what, by fate or providence had been put in front of her...

                                      "//"

"In my last years I published my final biography, actually a collection of biographies I had written over fifty years. It’s a huge book, but I promise I was never that interesting! But when you read it you can sense how much I changed throughout my life. Even I cannot believe it. I was born into wealth and privilege, but I had a fairly tragic childhood.

Elliott Roosevelt, younger brother of Teddy Roosevelt,

 fathered three children before alcohol and living in

 the fast lane ended his life.

(Bottom three images from collection of author)

"My brothers and I were orphaned when quite young, and we were raised by our grandparents. When I met Franklin I was as skinny as a rail, I mean tall and thin and buck-toothed… truly an ugly duckling. I say that without any shame, if anything, I have always tried to give the truth. I refused to believe that he was really interested in me. He was like a dashing young nobleman, so handsome and chivalrous, and wealthy of course. We were distant cousins and it did not seem very prudent to date him. But he persisted.

"Franklin’s side of the family was aristocratic, sophisticated, he was bred to lead. My side were the cowboys. The adventurers. My Uncle Teddy was a bigger than life individual, the first President Roosevelt… I was very fond of him, he actually gave me away at our wedding. But he and my father were outdoorsmen, risk-takers, lovable extroverts. They were… more bourgeoisie at heart.

L-R: Anna Rebecca Hall, Bamie, Teddy, Corinne

 and their mother Martha Roosevelt (approx 38 yrs),

 behind Elliott sitting on bottom Rt. Martha's brothers

 were heroes in the Confederate navy

"It was hard for people to believe that my Franklin was kin to my uncle, Theodore Roosevelt. Everything about them was different, and especially their politics. And I was stuck in the middle. But I was a wallflower… a daddy’s girl gone adrift, with a father long perished from alcohol and hard living."

Eleanor's mother, Anna Hall Roosevelt, seated on left, with

her future sister in law and future first lady, Edith Kermit.

Standing in as George Washington is possibly William McKinley

 "My mother was the proverbial belle of the ball… really, she was a beautiful socialite who spawned socials as naturally as children. I adored her, but felt like... no, I knew that I was a terrible embarrassment for her. What to do with me? Such eccentric features... Dresses hung on me like drapes… you couldn’t put a sack over my head… and I could not help but compare myself to her... a true icon of beauty during the gilded age. Meanwhile she dressed me extravagantly, lightened my hair, and lectured about my posture.

Eleanor about age 10.

"When she passed, and quite young, I felt as if I was a nobody, an empty slate. I was shy and not pretty, my only advantage was being the daughter of a social queen. I was overwhelmed and unsure of myself, and now I was left to my own devices. I had qualities that were hard to recognize, but ones that matured in time… and time was all I had.

"Maybe that was what Franklin saw in me. But if it was, he was the only one! I was uncoordinated, could not boil water without instructions! I had no talents. Very few friends. I had grown accustomed to people ignoring me, talking about me behind my back. Saying, “It's such a shame...” or, “She takes after the other side of the family...” They were always either defending me, or feeling sorry for me or making dire predictions. My grandparents fought that, but I felt it. Life had been very unrewarding for me so far, and I had no reason to believe that things would ever change.

"So you can imagine, tall, handsome Franklin Roosevelt swept me off of my feet! His attentions were welcome, but somewhat confusing. I felt like he could do so much better... but our many commonalities were undeniable. Whatever else came and went, we always had that intellectual and emotional connection. The kind that endures through everything. We were like soulmates, and that is rare in life... and it was awhile before my feet ever touched the ground."

The Roosevelts pose with their first two children (above)

Images below from author's collection

"Everyone knows all about the rest... politics, and polio... and the Depression, and the war. My husband became the new father of our country in many ways. I can add little to his story. His is as iconic as Washington or Lincoln. Washington gave us the vision, and Lincoln the forceful hand of correction to make that vision a reality... Franklin brought what the other two could never abide: the compromises necessary for sustainability. They were ideologues. Franklin was a pragmatist.

"So fast-forward several decades. Well, perhaps more than that. My husband had passed away, after four terms as president… my children were grown, and the Second World War was over. Europe was in shambles. They were still rooting out the Nazis. We were rebuilding Japan. France. Italy. Russia was rebuilding Poland, and East Germany and other countries, soon to be absorbed. 

"And they were finally organizing the long dreamed United Nations. I had written a news column for decades by then, had been sent by Franklin during the war as his proxy to visit many of our boys all over the world, to encourage the troops. But I was not exactly what you would call a “world leader.” And one day President Truman contacted me and asked me to provide my experience to the American delegation to this… the “greatest hope for mankind.”

"This intrepid delegation would actually help to breathe life into the thing, begin the first baby steps towards world peace. I was overwhelmed and joyful and mortified all at once. My first instinct was to shrink from it, but after thinking about it, I could not wait to go. In many ways, that was the beginning of a second life, and one vastly important- and satisfying to me, and to the world I hope.

"So you see, that is why I consider myself a late bloomer. Most people saw me as the former first lady… a public figure… this might have been a natural extension for many women, but Franklin’s years as President were quite stressful and disruptive. First ladies used to decorate the White House and give teas and such. But the whole time Franklin was in the White House, we were battling one devastating threat or another. Before that he had been Secretary of the Navy, and Governor, all while recovering from polio, and then the Great Depression… then Hitler was marching on Poland… Franklin and Winston Churchill began to meet and plan a strategy of survival. It was a horrible blur. I had never had time to consider myself, or what I might have to offer. I was grateful that Mr. Truman saw this potential in me. And this is important in telling my story... even then I was doing what a man was assigning to me… Meeting someone else’s expectations… and that was because up until then, I had few of my own.

"If that was not bad enough, I was nearly forty years old before I felt as if I knew myself or what I wanted to do. I had succumbed to Franklin’s agenda, Franklin’s vision of my life, for twenty years, borne six children, lost little Franklin and nursed the rest of them through a gamut of childhood diseases, obediently escorted each of my four sons off to military school when they reached twelve years old… and anything else Franklin thought was appropriate. I had been an empty slate before we married, but a full one afterwards! And most of the words on the slate were what others, Franklin, my children, and let’s not forget my mother-in-law… what demands or titles they wrote on it.

"You may not believe this, but I was not very well prepared to be a wife or a mother... we always had nannies and maids and such. And so when I married and we had children that seemed perfectly natural... nurses we called them, anyway they bossed me right along with the children! And I just did what they told me! I think in the beginning some of them thought I was daft. They were very demanding and strict with my children... and I just stepped aside, like a step-mother or something. They had no doubts about what they were doing. And I did. I have great regrets about all of that now.

"Anyway it wasn't until around 1920, after Franklin's first major run, for vice-president, that I decided to take charge of my life. I was about 36 years old.

\

"And I was still handled like a child, protected from the world... and I decided to join the human race!

"I took cooking lessons!. I went to a woman's home who agreed to teach me, followed her directions, then left the food for her family to eat! My mother in law was quite miffed, I never told her where I was disappearing to. Unlike Franklin, I had finally found my refuge from her.

"I got active in the League of Women Voters. They even put me on the Board... I'm sure they were anxious to use my name. But it was a good trade. The leader and her cohorts took me under their wing, and began to mentor me. These were women who had wonderful confidence, great personal power... and I could become one of them. "We called it 'The Intensive Education of Eleanor Roosevelt.' They had no idea how true that was."

"They treated me as an equal, not a fifth wheel... and I suddenly realized that I was not a child, and in fact I was an adult with considerable ability, that could be put to use.

Amazingly, it was about 1921, that was my true, real beginning, the Eleanor Roosevelt the world eventually came to know. Can you believe that person ever earned the confidence of President Truman?

"When the United States Senate voted on my nomination, it was suddenly real, I was being voted for… and yes, against. I was not just being considered, I Eleanor was being debated and voted on, and Franklin was nowhere to support me, or reassure. A senator spoke against me, after the vote, he had been the only one to vote against me, and said he would have to write a book to explain all of his objections! But Franklin had always had to face much greater opposition. I felt vindicated, and I felt the overwhelming support of the American people. And I felt that the support was for me, personally, and I had a job to do, and I would do it.

"Suddenly I was on a plane bound for London to meet with leaders from all over the world, to have a say, an active role in establishing lasting world negotiations and world peace. It was like a dream. People from other countries treated me as if I was the former president or something. Many were so grateful to the United States. I was no longer thinking about how to please Franklin, but how to serve my country… and mankind! We had been so busy, working to save the country, I had no thought about my own notoriety. But President Truman must have known, and it came into play quickly.

"It was hard and frustrating, many countries were not ready to join the dialogue, others wanted to run it… But the American delegation was well chosen and did a lot of good. In the war we had saved the world for Democracy, and through the United Nations we insured its survival. I found that all my skills as a wife and mother (although developed belatedly!) and my years as first lady had prepared me well for what was before me.

"You find as you go through life, that everything you have ever done has been preparing you for what God is going to put in front of you now.

"I soon found that certain people looked upon me as a leader of sorts… in fact a world leader. Eventually I accepted it, believed it… when back in America people organized protests against me, or called me hateful things, saw me as some kind of threat, I knew it must be true! Franklin had passed away- and perhaps passed a certain torch to me. My opinion mattered, partly because I knew what he thought and what he would say. So I stepped into the “public Eleanor” quite naturally. And especially when they asked me to give the seconding speech for nomination for Adlai Stephenson’s third bid for President at the Democratic Convention.

"Somewhere along the way I had become myself... But my sons were uncomfortable with it… they did not know me anymore. They kept suggesting that I kick back and retire, that I was doing too much. They were especially frustrated with me when they were working for John F. Kennedy, and I appeared on the podium to nominate, once again, my favorite man for president, Adlai Stevenson!

It felt good to be my own person, act on my own conscience, to be talked to, not as Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt, but as Eleanor, the shy orphan girl, who could not boil water, who grew up thinking she was insignificant. The ugly duckling may not have become a lovely swan, but she did grow, and she took one step after another, and her pond turned into a river, and the river led to the sea… I love Buckminster Fuller's view of the planet, “One island in one ocean,” he calls it. So I managed to make my own contribution in our ever-shrinking world, hopefully to complement my husband's. Anything can happen, if you just do each day what is put in front of you.