JACK PERKINS: Eleanor Roosevelt,
one of the most admired American women of
the 20th century, known the world over for her
efforts to promote human rights and world peace. As the famous first lady, wife
of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, she was often in the public
eye as she traveled the world spreading goodwill. But these familiar images
show only part of the story. There is another side to Eleanor
Roosevelt, a personal side. She was a lonely orphan
whose family was destroyed by alcoholism, an unhappy wife
of a philandering husband, and a passionate friend
who sought companionship outside her marriage. She was a woman striving to
achieve that delicate balance between her public image
and her private life. [music playing] Although born into a prominent
New York family in 1886, Eleanor Roosevelt did not
have a happy childhood. Painfully shy, even as a
young girl, she seldom smiled. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: I
think people who are shy really remain shy always, but
they learn how to control it. Almost everyone has
to overcome something. My mother's family
were beautiful and so it was a shock to the
family when I was just a very ordinary looking little girl. JACK PERKINS: Eleanor's
mother, Anna Ludlow Hall, was plainly disappointed with
the way her daughter looked and used to call her Granny. Eleanor Roosevelt
was the only daughter in a family of very
beautiful women who were accustomed to being
the great belles of society. And Eleanor Roosevelt always
felt herself a lesser Hall. She was not beautiful as her
mother and all of her aunts. And her mother, when she
was about six years old, her mother looked at her
and said, you have no looks, so see to it that
you create manners. And that really devastated the
young girl, Eleanor Roosevelt. JACK PERKINS: Shunned
by her mother, she looked to her father
Elliott Roosevelt for affection. The handsome younger brother
of Theodore Roosevelt, he was a man destined
for great things. But Elliott had one fatal
flaw, he was an alcoholic. When Eleanor was only eight,
her mother died suddenly of diphtheria, Elliott spent the
next two years drinking himself into an early grave. Her father died of
alcoholism, which is really this terrible family disease
that in many ways shaped Eleanor Roosevelt's life
and gave her a great empathy with people on the
margin, people in trouble, people in need, and in want. In many ways, Eleanor
Roosevelt's entire life was an answer to her parents. If she could only be good,
if she could be better, if she could do well if,
she could make them happier, then they would not
have disappeared. JACK PERKINS: Left
an orphan, Eleanor went to live in
Oyster Bay, New York with her maternal grandmother
who saw to it she received a proper upper class education. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: A woman,
uh, with the background that we grew up in
was educated in order to be a success in society. They learned languages. If you were fortunate enough
to be able to play the piano, or sing a little bit,
that was very pleasant. You, you, but everything
you did was so that you would grace society. JACK PERKINS: But Eleanor soon
tired of the debutante scene. After two years in England, she
returned to New York determined to broaden her horizons. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: I taught in a
settlement in Rivington Street. My first introduction
to conditions of labor. I had never known
anything about a sweatshop or how, how the
things were made, which you saw in the shops. [music playing] I was being educated. And, and I saw little children
who worked hours on end until they fell
off the benches-- was just asleep. Uh, this was all
completely new to me. And it was my introduction to,
um, labor and labor conditions. I walked on a picket line. It never occurred to me that
anyone would be, uh, upset about this, do you see? So I was curious
about everything. And that's how you took
everything that came along, everything you got a chance
to do, but I had no fear. JACK PERKINS: What came along
next in Eleanor's life was a young man named
Franklin Delano Roosevelt. A distant cousin, Franklin
was then a Harvard senior with big plans. Franklin Roosevelt grew up
in this comfortable cocoon along the Hudson in
upstate New York. And I think his, his
aristocratic background secluded him from many
of the world's tensions and many the world's conflicts. And it was within
that environment, I think, that he
was able to nurture this extraordinary
self-confidence, his extraordinary
faith in himself. He also grew up, uh, uh,
with a famous relative, Teddy Roosevelt, who was President
of the United States. And I think it's, it's
part of the American dream to believe that you're going
to grow up to become president. Franklin Roosevelt had reason
to believe that he could achieve that goal. JACK PERKINS: Eleanor was only
19 when she and Franklin began spending more time together. They were secretly
engaged in 1903. Well, Eleanor Roosevelt
and Franklin Roosevelt had really a very classical
romance, almost a storybook romance. They really did fall in love. They were both very tall. They were both very dashing. The stereotype of Eleanor
Roosevelt as a very ugly, young woman is really quite
false, as you can see, if you look at pictures
of her when she is young. And they had a secret romance. For a long time, they
kept it quite a secret. And they were in love. The love letters that we
have that have survived are as ardent as anything
Eleanor Roosevelt ever wrote. JACK PERKINS: When Sara
Roosevelt, Franklin's widowed mother, learned of their
engagement, she was enraged. She sent Franklin on a
cruise, so he could get over this silly infatuation. But his mind was made up. After waiting two years,
Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt were married in 1905. But as was so typical of
Eleanor's early years, even on her own wedding
day, she was not the center of attention. The date was March 17
and Eleanor's uncle, Teddy Roosevelt, came
from the White House to give the bride away, attend
the annual St. Patrick's Day parade, and without
question steal the show. Marriage was not easy
for the bashful bride. She had to contend with two very
strong personalities, Franklin and his ever
present mother Sara. By the time the
children came along, Eleanor had accepted the
role of dutiful wife. She wrote, "I left everything
to my mother-in-law and to my husband. I was growing very dependent
on my mother-in-law, requiring her help on
almost every subject, and never thought of asking
for anything that I felt would not meet
with her approval." Over the next 10 years,
Eleanor and Franklin would have six children. One died in infancy,
four are pictured here. In 1913, the Roosevelt family
moved to Washington DC, where Franklin's political
star was rising. He had been appointed
assistant secretary of the Navy by President Wilson. Four years later, when the
US entered World War I, Eleanor jumped at the
chance to get involved in the kind of public
social work she had been interested in
before her marriage. She became active in
the American Red Cross, working to improve
hospital care. Happy to get back out
and interact with people, she wrote, "I learned about
heroism in human nature and its accompanying frailties. Out of my contacts
with human beings, I became a more tolerant person. I gained a certain
assurance as to my ability to run things and the
knowledge that there is joy in accomplishing a good job. I knew more about the human
heart, which had been somewhat veiled in mystery up till now. I learned this, and
when the war ended, the feeling of relief
and thankfulness was beyond description." [music playing] Eleanor Roosevelt was
satisfied with the role of wife and mother. But all that changed in
1918 when she discovered her husband's affair with Lucy
Mercer, her social secretary. Lucy Mercer became a
friend of the household. A very attractive young
woman, and by the way, looked a lot like
Eleanor Roosevelt, was tall like Eleanor
Roosevelt, had blue eyes. Her manner was similar, a
very upper class manner, and very charming,
very beautiful. JACK PERKINS: Returning
from a trip to Europe as assistant
secretary of the Navy, FDR came down with pneumonia. It was as Eleanor was unpacking
his luggage that she stumbled upon love letters from Lucy. She was devastated not
only because Lucy Mercer was her friend and social secretary,
but because she thought she and FDR had, had
the perfect marriage. A marriage based on
trust and respect, very different from the marriage
her mother and father had. And so it really devastated
her for a very long time. JACK PERKINS: Eleanor offered
FDR a divorce, which some say he might have accepted if
his mother had not threatened to cut him off without a
penny if he left his family. After an awkward
reconciliation with his wife, Franklin spent the next
few years concentrating all his energies on his career. And in 1920, the Democratic
presidential candidate James M. Cox chose FDR as
his running mate. Said Mrs. Roosevelt, "I'm sure
I was glad for my husband, but it never occurred to
me to be much excited. I'd come to accept the fact that
public service was my husband's greatest interest,
and I always tried to make the necessary
family adjustments easy." The election was one of
the few FDR ever lost. The following summer, he took
his family for what he hoped would be a carefree vacation at
their summer home in Campobello in Canada. Out sailing one day, Franklin
accidentally fell in the water. Then still dressed in
his wet bathing suit, he helped fight a forest fire. By the next day,
he was very ill. The doctors called in had
to break the terrible news. Franklin Roosevelt had polio. [music playing] The journey home to Hyde
Park was long and exhausting. [music playing] For the entire family,
the realization that, at 39, Franklin
might never walk again was shattering. The disease had left him
paralyzed from the waist down. And initially, his
back was so weak, he could not sit up
without assistance. Eleanor moved into the next
bedroom and her mother-in-law into the room beyond. Convinced her son would be an
invalid the rest of his life, Sara Roosevelt urged him
to retire from public life altogether and
live at Hyde Park. But Eleanor disagreed. Since discovering her husband's
affair with Lucy Mercer, she was determined
to be more assertive. For once, Sara would
not have the last word. With Eleanor's help, Franklin
struggled to regain his health. While he would never walk again
without leg braces or crutches, he made greater progress
than his doctors predicted. Much of his rehabilitation was
done in Warm Springs, Georgia where a regular swimming regimen
helped build his arm and chest muscles. During the seven years
he spent recuperating, FDR kept up his
political contacts. And soon he was back
on the campaign trail. In 1928, he was elected
governor of New York. Throughout this
political comeback, Eleanor supported
her husband even when it appeared another woman
had entered the picture. FDR was a womanizer. And, uh, after he contracted
polio, uh, a very important woman in his life became
Missy LeHand who he hired during the 1920 campaign when he
was running for vice president. And Missy LeHand then became,
kind of, a junior wife. And I think that
after Lucy Mercer, they agreed to try again. But after Missy LeHand,
we have the beginning of what I think is their, uh,
really two-tier partnership. There is his court and
there is her court. And the courts meet somewhere
in the middle for dinner, but basically they
go their own way. JACK PERKINS: Increasingly,
Mrs. Roosevelt spent time with a new circle of
very progressive women friends. Along with Nancy Cook
and Marion Dickerman, she started a school for girls
and founded this furniture factory at Val-Kill,
Eleanor's Hyde Park cottage. Its main purpose was to provide
jobs for unemployed workers in the area. Eleanor Roosevelt's friendship
with Nancy Cook and Marion Dickerman, and also with
Esther Lape and Elizabeth Read, are the two great
friendships of, of her life during the 1920s. And they really
restore her to a world of women and political activism,
to art and poetry and activism that become very
important to her. Um, it's very interesting to me
that her closest friends were lesbian women, were feminist
women, were suffragists, were activists. JACK PERKINS: As Eleanor created
her own separate private life, she continued to help promote
her husband's political career, which in 1932 looked to be
heading toward the White House. ANNOUNCER 1: Franklin
D. Roosevelt, having received more than 2/3
of all the delegates voting, I proclaim him the nominee of
this convention for President of the United States. We have a perfect
day for this trip, and I am very happy to
be going out to Chicago. And everybody knows the
reason why I'm so happy. JACK PERKINS: Franklin Roosevelt
became the first man ever to fly to a political convention
to accept a nomination. With him were his wife
and two of his sons. [music playing] On the platform, Eleanor
Roosevelt, almost lost in the crowd, watched as her
husband proudly proclaimed, "I pledge you, I pledge
myself to a new deal for the American people." This is more than
a political campaign. It is a call to arms. Give me your help not
to win votes alone, but to win in this
crusade to restore America to its own people. [cheering] JACK PERKINS: The election
night, the Roosevelt family waited for the results to
be announced over the radio. Asked to comment, Mrs. Roosevelt
said, "I'm happy for my husband because in many ways it makes
up for the blow he suffered when he was stricken with
infantile paralysis. And I have confidence
in his ability to help this country
in its crisis." [music playing] But Eleanor was ambivalent
about living in the White House. She was afraid it
might mean forfeiting her newfound independence. As she said, "The turmoil
in my heart and mind was rather great that night." ANNOUNCER 2: The results are
now conclusive, Roosevelt wins. JACK PERKINS: Franklin had won
his first landslide victory. And now, he and Eleanor would
have to adjust to life lived in the public eye. and forget that there is
such a thing as a depression for a time, and forget
all the troubles that wear us down, and simply
sing is a grand thing to do. [MUSIC - ZO ELLIOTT, "THERE'S A
LONG LONG TRAIL"] ALL: (SINGING) There's a
long, long trail a-winding into the land of my dreams,
where the nightingales are singing and the
white moon beams. There's a long, long night of
waiting until my dreams all come true. Till the day that
I'll be going down that long, long trail with you. JACK PERKINS: It was a
long, long trail of despair that greeted the new
president and first lady. The Depression had left 16
million people out of work. Defying conventions, Mrs.
Roosevelt immediately set out touring the country,
acting as she put it, "as her husband's ears and legs,
she would walk among the crowds and report back what she saw." In this case, what she saw was
widespread hunger and sorrow. [music playing] A million and a half
abandoned their homes and took to the road. Drought and erosion
had turned the Midwest into a tremendous dust bowl. The country averaged a thousand
foreclosures and evictions a day when Franklin Roosevelt
took office in March 1933. [music playing] As tent cities sprang
up across the nation, Mrs. Roosevelt made it her job
to get out and talk to people about their problems
and concerns. Very quickly, the public learned
that the new first lady was not like her predecessors
in the White House. She was visible, outspoken,
and actively involved with her husband's
policies and programs. When FDR needed someone to
explain his latest New Deal reforms to the people, it was
Eleanor who took to the radio. It is my honor tonight as
president of the National Broadcasting Company to
introduce to the radio audience the first lady of the land,
Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. The purpose of the
National Recovery Act is to bring us
back to prosperity. But we want a prosperity,
which will make life more worth living for all of our people. JACK PERKINS: More
of a public figure than any previous first
lady, Eleanor Roosevelt had her own staff, held
her own press conferences, and traveled around the world
representing her husband on trips of state. Soon as Eleanor Roosevelt was
taken seriously in politics, as soon as she had her
own political life, uh, she was at home. And her shyness
absolutely disappeared, although she was
always a little jittery as she went on stage to speak. She spent a lot of time
perfecting her speaking habits. She worked with a tutor. But she liked politics. She enjoyed politics. And there was no
shyness about her. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: I only wish
[coughs] that my husband could have been here himself. For he has a great
interest in all ships. He loves the sea. And anything that has to do with
the sea is of interest to him. [applause] JACK PERKINS: Just keeping
up with her was a challenge. As one newspaper woman
wrote, "Please God, make Eleanor tired
for just one day." [cheering] She cut back the White
House social calendar because she considered it out
of tune with the Depression, but kept any functions involving
children like the annual Easter egg hunt. Avoiding controversy,
however, was not always easy for
Mrs. Roosevelt who was on this occasion criticized
for her informal dress. [music playing] But generally, the
first lady showed that she could be
poised and gracious, no matter what
the circumstances. With love, wishes, with
all the little children in the whole United
States, I dearly much like to sing a piece for you. All right, you
go ahead and sing. (SINGING) For your wonderful
smile, an orchid to you. For your beautiful
eyes, an orchid to you. It's plain to see that
you are heaven-sent. And finding you Mrs.
Roosevelt was a blessing even for your model is
love, an orchid to you. A great big orchid to you. JACK PERKINS: Her
husband's birthday parties were charity events
for crippled children and sometimes occasions
for good natured ribbing of the first lady. Well, this has really
been a wonderful day for us. Yes, it has. Lunch at the White House. Potluck with the Roosevelts. [laughter] Eleanor is a good cook. Yes, she is. Yes, yes, yes. We did have fun there. What do we have to lunch? I don't know what it was. What do you think it was? Tut-tut, I think it was
boiled New England Republican. No, I don't think it was. [laughter] Well, it has been a
wonderful day anyway. Yeah. I had fun talking, too. Yes, I saw you talking
with Mrs. Roosevelt. Yeah. What did you talk about? Well, she talked about her day
and I talked about my nights. JACK PERKINS: "My Day"
was the name of Eleanor's daily newspaper column. It ran in 180 papers nationwide,
underscoring the feeling that Mrs. Roosevelt
was everywhere. One famous cartoon of the
time showed two minors stunned at her underground arrival,
but no one seemed surprised when she did actually
go down into a mine to examine working conditions. Said another cartoon,
"She flits through the air with the greatest of ease,
an amiable bird ever seeking to please." Despite all the publicity
Eleanor generated, FDR did not object to
his wife's activities. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: I remember
that well saying to my husband once, do you mind if I
take such and such a step? And he's looking at me and
say, no, I don't mind at all. You go ahead and do
whatever you want, but of course if
the reaction is bad, I shall say I can do
nothing with my wife. [music playing] I think Franklin
Roosevelt, uh, had enormous amount of
respect and certainly some-- and a great deal of
affection for Eleanor. And I think that the
feelings were mutual. But I think that they were
very independent forces. I mean, they were-- they led separate lives even
though they, uh, maintained, uh, the appearance
of, of, of a marriage. JACK PERKINS: Just how separate
were their private lives? For years, historians have
acknowledged FDR's relations with Lucy Mercer
and Missy LeHand. But more recently,
attention has focused on Eleanor's special
friends, like Earl Miller, a tall handsome
state trooper who was assigned as the first
lady's bodyguard in 1929. When they met, he was
32 and she was 45. One of the things
Eleanor Roosevelt wrote is that everybody wants to
come first in somebody's life. And Eleanor Roosevelt
really did come first in Earl Miller's life. He protected her. He made her laugh. He got her in touch
with her body. He gave her, uh, a
horse called Dot. He helped teach her how to dive. They were boon companions
and very great friends. JACK PERKINS: Whether they
were more than friends is difficult to say for sure. While there are many
snapshots of them together, their daily correspondence
has mysteriously disappeared. Someone apparently thought it
better it was not made public. I think over time Eleanor
Roosevelt's friendships, which involve passion, and commitment,
and intensity, uh, probably did, uh, also involve
physical intimacy. I think her great
friendship with Earl Miller was an intimate and
passionate friendship. I think her great friendship
with Lorena Hickok was a physical, and intimate,
and passionate friendship. JACK PERKINS: Lorena Hickok
pictured here with Earl Miller was the highest paid woman
reporter for the Associated Press when Eleanor
Roosevelt met her in 1932. They remained close friends
until Eleanor's death in 1962. Unlike Earl Miller where all
the letters have disappeared, in this case, we have
thousands of letters written by two women who write pretty
much what they mean to write. JACK PERKINS: All together,
Eleanor wrote Lorena Hickok more than 2,000 letters,
which include lines like, "I can't kiss you, so I
kiss your picture good night and good morning. And I ache to hold you close." Victorian woman
of that age in, which Eleanor Roosevelt
was certainly one, tended to use language, uh, to
express their affection for one another, which today
suggest physical intimacy. Um, but in the
context of the times may not have meant that at all. When Eleanor Roosevelt
write, writes to Lorena Hickok, "I cannot wait for your return,
so I can lie down beside you and take you in my arms," I
don't think that's a rhetorical Victorian flourish. I think that's real. If Eleanor Roosevelt
was a bisexual, she certainly went
to great lengths to see that we would
never find out. My own feeling is at
this point, uh, we don't know, uh, what the extent
of many of these relationships were. Whether they were consummated,
whether if it went beyond just, uh, an emotional
attachment or not. And I think it's very unlikely
that given the evidence that exists that
we'll ever know. in public, Franklin
and Eleanor Roosevelt appeared happily married. This is a very good turkey. JACK PERKINS: But
over the years, they were to become more like
political partners than husband and wife. And they had very
different friends and they had very
different visions. But I think what made their
partnership so endurable was that they both
enjoyed the game. They both were charismatic. They both liked what they did. It wasn't an ordeal for them. Um, and in that sense,
they were both happy when they were working hardest. JACK PERKINS: The
work Eleanor Roosevelt was happiest doing was
helping those who could not help themselves. And as first lady she constantly
used her power and influence to expose inequities and
stimulate public concern. In the District of Columbia, she
visited several social welfare institutions. She found them shocking
and depressing, and reported her findings
in her "My Day" column. She turned the country's
spotlight on the Blue Plains Home for the Aged, saying that
the way the old were herded together was a
national disgrace. [music playing] She surprised her
friends and foes when she accepted an
invitation to testify before a congressional
committee. No president's wife had
ever before put herself on the witness stand. This time, I would yield
to Chairman the District Appointment Committee,
Congressman Jennings Randolph. Mrs. Roosevelt, you
are the first first lady of the land who
has ever appeared before a congressional
committee. I can assure you
that we are deeply appreciative of your presence. Would you please tell the
committee about the conditions as you found them on your
visits to various welfare institutions? I came away with the feeling
that if, in the United States, Blue Plains was our conception
of how to care for the aged, we were at a pretty low
ebb of civilization. It was a sick feeling you got
from the whole atmosphere. JENNINGS RANDOLPH:
Mrs. Roosevelt, we feel that you have done
the nation's capital a great service by
calling attention to the conditions in
the public welfare institutions in this city. Franklin recognized that
she could be a more potent moral force than he could be. Because he was the one who had
to make the tough compromises, and make the tough
decisions, and deal with the practical political
implications of some of the things that she
wanted to have done. JACK PERKINS: Perhaps the most
controversial political stance Eleanor Roosevelt took was
to resign from the Daughters of the American
Revolution in 1939 when they refused to let Marian
Anderson sing in Constitution Hall. [music playing] Mrs. Roosevelt would later
support black leaders who organized an outdoor concert
featuring Marian Anderson at the Lincoln Memorial. On Easter Sunday, April
9, 1939, 75,000 people crowded at the steps
of the memorial to hear the famous
contralto sing. Always an outspoken
advocate of civil rights, Mrs. Roosevelt knew that the
public gestures she was making might alienate some
of her husband's Southern constituents, but
she would not back down. [MUSIC - MARIAN ANDERSON, "MY
COUNTRY, 'TIS OF THEE"] MARIAN ANDERSON:
(SINGING) My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of
liberty, of thee we sing. Land where my fathers died,
land of the pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside,
let freedom ring. JACK PERKINS: When the US
entered World War II in 1941, Mrs. Roosevelt, who had
four sons in uniform was quick to lend her
support to the war effort. She welcomed GIs to the White
House and looked for other ways to help out. She was soon named deputy
director of the Office of Civilian Defense. But once again, she became
the target of attack. In what she would later describe
as an unfortunate episode, Mrs. Roosevelt was forced to
resign her OCD job when critics complained she
was using the post to further domestic reforms. But even this setback did
not dampen her spirits. [music playing] When Franklin asked her to bring
back a report on the status of the American troops overseas,
Eleanor was eager to go. [music playing] Tagged with the codename Rover
and wearing her Red Cross uniform, Mrs. Roosevelt
toured the South Pacific. She walked for miles stopping in
to talk with wounded soldiers, inspecting living conditions,
and spreading goodwill. By the end of the trip, she
had traveled 25,000 miles and lost 25 pounds. Said Admiral Halsey, "She
alone accomplished more good than any other person
or group of civilians who passed through my area." [music playing] She brought a
spirit of good humor and hope to GIs everywhere
and broadcast her findings and feelings to
people back home. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: If every
trip I take and everything I say helps me in any way to make it
clearer to you how closely knit together our people are at
home and abroad, then my job has been worthwhile. I wonder if I can transmit
to you the feeling, which I have so strongly. In a nation such as ours,
every man who fights for us is in some way our man. His parents may be of
any race or religion, but if that man
dies, he dies side by side with all of his buddies. And if your heart is
with any man, in some way it must be with all. All the men are our men,
part of our United States, which they have saved, so
that we can still call it the land of the free and
the home of the brave. [music playing] JACK PERKINS: The
war was not yet over when the country was
rocked by the terrible news that Franklin
Roosevelt was dead. Returning from the
Yalta Conference in the spring of
1945, the President had been tired, but
otherwise in good health. So it came as a great
surprise when he suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage
while resting at his summer cottage in Warm Springs. He died on April 12,
1945 at the age of 63. [music playing] After 42 years of
marriage, Eleanor Roosevelt was not with her
husband when he died. She had been attending
a charitable benefit in Washington and had to
rush to the White House where Vice President
Harry Truman was sworn in. "What can I do?",
President Truman asked her. Mrs. Roosevelt answered,
"Tell us what we can do. Is there any way
we can help you?" It was as she was making funeral
arrangements that Eleanor suffered another shock
when she learned that among the people with Franklin
when he died was his old flame Lucy Mercer. BLANCHE WIESEN COOK: It was
a source of tremendous pain for her, the knowledge that he
had continued to have an affair that she knew nothing
about or a friendship that she knew nothing about. At the very beginning
of her bereavement, she thought she would just
remove herself from politics and said the story is over. But very quickly decided
that it was better to keep involved in politics
and that really gave her the freedom. I mean, his death ironically
gave her the freedom to say and do exactly what
she wanted to say and do. And she said, "It was
wonderful to be free." [music playing] after her husband's death,JAr Eleanor Roosevelt accepted
President Truman's offer to serve as a US delegate to
the newly formed United Nations. In January 1946, she
attended the first meeting of the General Assembly
at London Central Hall. With characteristic
grace, Mrs. Roosevelt is said to have saved that first
session from destroying itself in debate. I've been grateful for the
opportunity to be here with you to see the work, which
has been accomplished. And that in the end I
hope that none of us will go home without
remembering that we have a great responsibility
to carry to our peoples the feeling that this can
be an instrument if we give to it as much work as we have
given in the past to winning the war. This can be an instrument
to win the peace. [applause] JACK PERKINS: No longer bound
by her position as first lady, Mrs. Roosevelt was to become
an even more outspoken advocate of world peace. Between sessions,
she made a point of touring the Nazi
concentration camps. She also visited the
camps of displaced persons where she learned that the
Soviets were forcing refugees to return to their
country of origin, even though many wanted
the freedom to find new homes in other countries. These encounters along with
the horrors of the Holocaust convinced Mrs. Roosevelt
to campaign in the UN for a universal declaration of
human rights, something that would protect the rights of all
men and women around the world. Eleanor Roosevelt was the
first activist first lady. And one has to say there
have been very few. One thinks of Rosalynn Carter,
of course, and more recently Hillary Clinton, but there were
very few activist first ladies. And for all of her activism,
particularly for her work on behalf of racial justice,
she was viciously attacked. But it was her tremendous
courage, and willingness to be attacked, and to
continue to do the things that had to be done that we
remember her for today. [applause] Mr. President,
fellow delegates, we stand today at the
threshold of a great event, both in the life of
the United Nations and in the life of mankind. This Universal Declaration
of Human Rights may well become the
international Magna Carta of all men everywhere. We hope its proclamation
by the General Assembly will be an event comparable
to the proclamation of the Declaration
of the Rights of Man by the French people in 1789. The adoption of
the Bill of Rights by the people of
the United States and the adoption of comparable
declarations at different times in other countries. JACK PERKINS: On
December 10, 1948, the General Assembly adopted
the Universal Human Rights Declaration that Mrs.
Roosevelt had helped draft. She considered it to be
her greatest achievement. [music playing] In 1953, when a Republican
administration took office, Mrs. Roosevelt resigned her
official post at the UN. She spent the next few
years traveling the world, lecturing, writing, and
attending various tributes. [music playing] Eleanor Roosevelt's unique
public stature gave new meaning to the role of first lady. She made it clear that the job
could be far more than just ceremonial. [music playing] In her memoirs, she wrote about
her years in the White House with FDR. "He might have been happier
with a wife who was completely uncritical. That I was never
able to be, and he had to find it in other people. Nevertheless, I think
sometimes I acted as a spur, even though the spurring was
not always wanted or welcomed." Up until her death,
Eleanor Roosevelt continued to act as a
spur, fighting for causes close to her heart,
including racial equality, national health insurance,
and worldwide human rights. [music playing] Eleanor Roosevelt provoked
strong public reaction both pro and con, but she was never
one to let public opinion sway her resolve. As she later said, "I believe
intensely, much I am unsure of, but this I believe
with all my heart. In the long run, we shape our
lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until
we die, and the choices we make are ultimately our
own responsibility. [music playing] It wasn't until she
reached her late 70s that her failing health forced
Mrs. Roosevelt to cut back her busy schedule. "There's so much to
do," she said, "so many engrossing challenges, so
much and every day that is profoundly interesting, but
I suppose I must slow down." Stand and observe a
minute of silence in memory of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt. My country mourns her. And I know that all in this
assembly mourn with us. But even as we do,
the sadness we share is enlivened by the faith in
her fellow man and his future, which filled the heart of
this strong and gentle woman. She imparted this
faith not only to those who shared the privilege
of knowing her and working by her side, but to countless
men, women, and children in every part of the world who
loved her even as she loved them. For she embodied the
vision and the will to achieve a world
in which all men can walk in peace and dignity. I don't think it
amiss, Mr. President, to suggest that the United
Nations is in no small way a memorial to her and
to her aspirations. To it, she gave the last 15
years of her restless spirit. She breathed life into
this organization. The United Nations has
meaning and hope for millions, thanks to her labors, her love,
no less than to her ideals. You in particular will remember
the woman, the intelligence, and the infectious buoyancy
which she brought to her tasks. But I don't think that we
are divided in our grief at the passing of this great
and gallant human being who was called the First
Lady of the World. [music playing]
