Many Americans viewed the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s active public life “with mingled admiration and alarm,” according to one reporter at the time. An Atlanta couple sent a telegram to FDR:
“MR. PRESIDENT WOULD YOU PLEASE SUGGEST THAT MRS. ROOSEVELT CONFINE HER DUTIES MORE TO THE WHITE HOUSE.”
Between 1933 and 1937 Mrs. Roosevelt traveled on average 40,000 miles a year; hosted weekly radio shows; held regular press conferences, wrote a monthly magazine column and a daily newspaper column, “My Day,” that reached millions of readers. After FDR’s death, Mrs. Roosevelt had an instrumental role advancing her husband’s long-held vision for a United Nations, then crafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which UN delegates unanimously approved in 1948. She continued to serve the cause of human rights up until she died in 1962 at age 78.
Sixty years on, Mrs. Roosevelt’s image still shines. On June 6, 2023 the U.S. Mint issued a new coin—in honor of Eleanor Roosevelt.
Eleanor Roosevelt was an amazing woman…..years ahead of the times. She listened, open to change and was a person of action. Hopefully there are many young “Eleanors” sprinkled around America.