| | The Ugly Duckling
From The Best Way Out is Always Through
by BJ Gallagher | I think that somehow we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.
- Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady, social activist, U.N. delegate
Although Eleanor Roosevelt was born into the lap of luxury in New York City - part of a high society known as the "swells" - she was not a happy little girl. Insecure and starved for affection, she thought herself to be ugly and ungraceful. Her mother Anna didn't help her daughter's poor self-image, telling guests that Eleanor was "such a funny child, so old-fashioned, we always call her Granny."
Anna Roosevelt died of diphtheria when Eleanor was just eight, so she and her two brothers were sent to live with their maternal grandmother. Her father Elliot died of alcoholism two years later, just before Eleanor turned ten.
At age 15, she was sent off to finishing school in England. There, she gained a bit of confidence, learned to speak fluent French, and thrived under the tutelage of a feminist headmistress who was committed to teaching her girls to think for themselves.
At 17, Eleanor returned to the U.S., ending her formal education. She was given a debutante party to mark her entrance into society, as was customary for young ladies of that era and social class. Shortly thereafter, she met a distant cousin, young Franklin Delano Roosevelt who was a student at Harvard, and their courtship began.
Franklin married Eleanor when she was 19, beginning what would be a long and challenging marriage. Franklin's domineering mother, Sara, bullied the young bride, who was still struggling with insecurity and self-doubt. Sara wanted to help the motherless girl, but the relationship proved difficult, especially for Eleanor. Sara had always doted on her son and was determined that he be successful in life; she made it her business to mold his new bride into a suitable wife.
Eleanor bore Franklin six children in the first ten years of marriage, one of whom died in infancy. Her hands full with her brood, Eleanor had little time for, or interest in, her husband's political career. She let her mother-in-law dominate their family life in these early years of her marriage, feeling the need for the older woman's experience and advice.
But all that changed in the summer of 1921 Read More>>> | | |  | | |
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