She once bought out an entire farm stand so the woman running it could close for the day. FACT: Though not as depicted in Atlantic Crossing. Eleanor Roosevelt was 13 years into her marriage in 1918. Missy LeHand Joseph Lash was a faithful intimate during ERs life and an excellent friend in the books he wrote about her after her death. 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. 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. She came to work for FDR as his private secretary at age 23 and stayed for more than 20 years. Franklin Delano Roosevelt 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. I waded through the syrupy tributes in hope of a crumb of real insight. She told a friend she had burned FDRs letters, though I do not believe that for a moment. 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] He loved to gather a group around him while he mixed cocktails, told stories, and traded gossip and jokes. He replied that it had. At the time of their marriage, Eleanor's uncle Theodore Roosevelt joked that "there's nothing like keeping the name in the family." [12] Eleanor Roosevelt biographer Blanche Wiesen Cook expressed skepticism that this had been a serious obstacle, noting the depth of Mercer's feelings. What should have been their day alone ended up with the two of them practically ignored. Historians have also debated whether, as a Roman Catholic, Mercer would have been willing to marry a divorced man. They speak of her need to make surroundings beautiful, and days bright, and loved ones glad to be alive. The experience transformed him. This week marks the 72nd anniversary of the death and subsequent funeral of President Franklin Roosevelt. Please, I begged, when she spent a night on the doorstep because she didnt want to disturb the servants or, she told her young husband when he returned at dawn from the dance shed left him to enjoy, to ruin his glorious time by going back to ask him for the key. Franklin and Eleanor were acquainted as children but came to romance and courtship as young adults in 1902. Anna WebMissy LeHand was private secretary to Franklin D. Roosevelt (32nd US President of the United States) for over two decades. On February 11, 1920, Mercer became his second wife. 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. Missy [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. 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. When his terrifying mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, bullied his young wife, he refused to take sides. Because of her efforts, women as well as men had Civilian Conservation Corps camps, and children no longer drank tainted milk, and blacks got a share, if not a fair one, of the defense miracle that was wresting the nation out of the Depression and into World War II. The extent of Suckley's close relationship with Roosevelt wasn't known until her death in 1991, when a stash of letters from Roosevelt was found under her bed. (If FDR had not fallen in love with Lucy Mercer, ER might never have become a force for peace and social justice. The historical consensus is that Lucy Mercer gave FDR the unquestioning adoration ER could not. Sign up to get the latest news on your favorite dramas and mysteries, as well as exclusive content, video, sweepstakes and more. 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. His team included Louis Howe, Frances Perkins, Sam Rosenman, and of course Missy. But with a World War raging Missys passing was soon lost in the swirl of news about battles, victories, and another presidential campaign. He provided for her in his will, but she suffered a stroke in 1941 and predeceased him. Their marriage may have been a failure, but their partnership was a triumph. It was then that their relationship became more unconventional. 'I have longed to have you with me,' he wrote in one letter from a cruise to Panama. 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. He knew what he owed to her; he knew how much he needed her." Just a few months later FDR would be stricken with polio, and Missy would become his companion and gatekeeper. Thus was born a truly remarkable partnership. Moreover, while I do not believe that parents are responsible for the acts of adult offspring, and the nature-nurture debate is far from settled, the five surviving Roosevelt children married a total of 19 times. 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. 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." 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'. "I am more your mother than your mother is" (via "No Ordinary Time"). 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. See also "Miss LeHand: FDR's Influential and Largely Forgotten Assistant". FDR confidant and Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter regarded her as the "fifth most powerful person in the country" at the time. Both were dedicated to the idea of public service and worked to lead America out of the Great Depression. But she did. Terms of Use: PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Could any husband, or any other human being, have healed ERs wounds? The affair lasted two years, with one of his friends posing as Mercer's escort. She was also determined that he would do good. She was an exquisitely sensitive and engaging companion and later a constant and competent nurse to a husband who doted on her. * [Contains spoilers. Daisy Bonner, who cooked for Franklin Roosevelt for twenty years in the Georgia White House, recalled his favorite dish. But when FDR returned to New York after several months at sea he displayed marked improvements both physically and mentally. 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). [43], The MercerRoosevelt affair became wider public knowledge in 1966 when revealed in The Time Between the Wars, a memoir by Jonathan W. Daniels (19021981), a Roosevelt aide from 1943 to 1945. A few years later, when FDR contracted polio and was paralyzed from the waist down, their lives changed. [30] When her husband later suffered a stroke, she contacted Roosevelt to arrange for him to be cared for at well-regarded Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.[31] Historian/author Doris Kearns Goodwin speculated that an entry in the White House ushers diary for August 1, 1941 included a code name for Lucy Rutherfurd, suggesting that she attended a private dinner with the president then. To fully understand why Missy LeHand had such influence in the White House it is important to look at her role during the years FDR was out of public view recovering from polio. 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. Missy suffered a terrible stroke in 1941 and left the White House, so her assistant Grace Tully took over for her. . In a short period of time she became the most famous secretary in America. As told by Joseph P. Lash in "Eleanor and Roosevelt," after she had seen her husband's body, the first lady was told that her former secretary, Lucy Mercer, now Lucy Rutherfurd, had been with Franklin when he died. In an era when it was very difficult for women to rise to the highest levels of government, she was truly FDRs Right Hand Woman. Hopefully The Gatekeeper will finally put to rest the sexist gossip that Missy gained her power because she was FDRs mistress. Roosevelt left Missy half of his $3 million estate. Per the Washington Post, Eleanor burned the love letters she uncovered from Mercer to Franklin. From March 1933 until May 1941 Missy assisted FDR and the family in every imaginable way. During the early days of their marriage, ER wrote her mother-in-law that the Jew party at Bernard Baruchs was appalling. A military tribunal later found all eight men guilty. In this quiet domestic scene as the two had just been smiling at each other, Roosevelt suddenly placed his hand up on his forehead and temple, saying "I have a terrific headache," then slumped over losing consciousness. (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. LeHand, Marguerite, 1896-1944 - Library of Congress FDR relished rich foods and fine wines. Missy lived in the Governors Mansion with the Roosevelts, and was part of the family in every way. 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.