50 Fun Facts About Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor was the niece of which US president?

Her father was Theodore's younger brother; her uncle gave her away at her wedding.

Eleanor's father died in 1894 after doing what during a fit of delirium tremens?

An alcoholic confined to a sanitarium, he survived the fall but died of a seizure; her mother had died of diphtheria two years earlier.

At 15 Eleanor was sent to Allenswood Academy, a finishing school in which city?

Its headmistress Marie Souvestre cultivated independent thinking; Eleanor learned fluent French and kept Souvestre's portrait on her desk for life.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was Eleanor's what?

She never had to change her surname; her uncle the president quipped it was 'a good thing to keep the name in the family'.

Why was Eleanor and Franklin's wedding set for March 17, 1905?

His attendance made the front page of The New York Times.

Franklin's mother Sara connected the couple's New York townhouse to her own how?

Sara ran both households for a decade and told her grandchildren she was 'more your mother than your mother is'.

How many children did Eleanor bear between 1906 and 1916?

One, the first Franklin Jr., died in infancy; she later wrote that understanding small children 'did not come naturally to me'.

In 1918 Eleanor discovered Franklin's affair with Lucy Mercer, who held what job?

She found a bundle of love letters while unpacking his suitcase; Sara threatened to disinherit Franklin if he divorced.

Lucy Mercer, by then Mrs Rutherfurd, was present at what event in April 1945?

Their renewed meetings had been arranged by daughter Anna; the family kept the affair from the press until 1966.

Where was the family holidaying in August 1921 when Franklin was struck by his paralytic illness?

Eleanor fought her mother-in-law's wish that he retire as a country gentleman and pushed him to stay in politics.

In the 1924 New York governor's race, Eleanor trailed her Republican cousin in a car fitted with what?

It emitted fake steam to link him to the Teapot Dome scandal; she later admitted the stunt was beneath her dignity, and he never forgave her.

What does the name Val-Kill, which Eleanor gave her Hyde Park cottage, roughly mean in Dutch?

It was the only home she ever personally owned and became the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site in 1977.

With Marion Dickerman and Nancy Cook, Eleanor bought which New York City girls' academy in 1927?

The same year the three friends and Caroline O'Day founded Val-Kill Industries, a furniture workshop, on the Hyde Park estate.

Eleanor was the longest-serving First Lady in US history, covering how many years?

She held the role for Franklin's four terms from March 1933 to April 1945.

Which of these was Eleanor NOT the first presidential spouse to do?

She was also the first to write a monthly magazine column and host a weekly radio show.

Who was barred from Eleanor's White House press conferences?

The rule forced newspapers to keep women reporters on staff; she held 348 conferences over 12 years.

What was the title of Eleanor's syndicated newspaper column, which ran six days a week from 1935 to 1962?

The title was suggested by the United Features Syndicate; her separate advice column If You Ask Me ran in Ladies' Home Journal and McCall's.

Eleanor set out to match Franklin's presidential salary in 1933, earning how much herself?

She gave most of it to charity; a New Yorker cartoon that year had a coal miner exclaiming 'For gosh sakes, here comes Mrs. Roosevelt!'

After Eleanor visited the 1933 Bonus Army camp, what did a veteran say the new president did, unlike Hoover?

Hoover had dispersed the earlier march by force; the 1933 marchers were offered Civilian Conservation Corps jobs.

Eleanor's chief project of the 1930s was a planned community for unemployed miners in which state?

Arthurdale was later widely judged a failure, and the government sold its last holdings there at a loss in 1941.

The Pennsylvania town of Norvelt is named for whom?

It combines the last syllables of EleaNOR RooseVELT; she visited the homestead community in 1937.

Eleanor Roosevelt quit the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1939 after it barred which singer from its hall?

She helped arrange the contralto's Easter Sunday concert on the Lincoln Memorial steps before a huge integrated crowd.

Roughly how many people attended the contralto's 1939 Lincoln Memorial concert?

Millions more listened by radio; Anderson later became the first Black singer at the Metropolitan Opera in 1955.

Eleanor lobbied for the 1934 Costigan–Wagner Bill, which aimed to do what?

She arranged a meeting between Franklin and NAACP president Walter White, but the bill did not pass.

What did Eleanor famously say after flying with a Black instructor at Tuskegee?

The publicity boosted the Tuskegee Airmen, though it is often wrongly credited with starting the training programme, which was already five months old.

Which newspaper said Eleanor should be 'forced to retire from public life' for defending Japanese Americans?

She warned against 'great hysteria against minority groups' and privately opposed Franklin's internment order, Executive Order 9066.

From 1941 Eleanor co-chaired the Office of Civilian Defense with which big-city mayor?

She had considered Red Cross work in Europe but advisers feared the president's wife could be captured.

Which admiral said Eleanor Roosevelt's 1943 South Pacific tour did 'more good than any other person' who visited?

She was left shaken and depressed by the carnage she saw on the morale-building trip.

Which AP reporter, who 'fell madly in love' with Eleanor during the 1932 campaign, gave her a sapphire ring she wore at the 1933 inauguration?

'Hick' resigned from the AP over the closeness and became an investigator for a New Deal relief agency; some 3,000 of their letters survive.

Which New York State Police sergeant, her bodyguard, remained Eleanor's close friend until her death?

Rumours of an affair were never substantiated, and their letters are said to have been bought and destroyed or locked away.

Whom did Franklin take to the Yalta Conference in 1945 instead of Eleanor?

Anna also nursed Eleanor through her final illness in 1962.

Which president appointed Eleanor a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly in December 1945?

He later called her the 'First Lady of the World' for her human rights work.

Eleanor became the first chair of which UN body in 1946?

She stayed on as US representative to it until 1953, two years after stepping down as chair.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted on 10 December 1948 in which city?

The General Assembly met at the Palais de Chaillot; 48 nations voted yes, none against and eight abstained.

How many articles does the Universal Declaration of Human Rights contain?

French jurist René Cassin compared its structure to a Greek temple with a foundation, steps, four columns and a pediment.

Which Canadian legal scholar prepared the initial draft of the Universal Declaration?

He was the new director of the UN's Division of Human Rights; Cassin of France reshaped his draft and Malik of Lebanon was rapporteur.

What did the UN General Assembly give Eleanor when the Declaration was adopted in 1948?

Time later named her its Woman of the Year for 1948 retroactively.

Eleanor hosted Prospects of Mankind, a monthly talk show from 1959 to 1962, on which network?

The PBS precursor taped it on campuses, at European stations and at the UN; she had first appeared on TV the afternoon after VE Day.

Which Democrat did Eleanor loyally back over John F. Kennedy in the 1960 nomination fight?

Kennedy had approached her for support; her eventual endorsement may have nudged his 'hairline victory'.

Kennedy named Eleanor to chair which body in December 1961?

Created by Executive Order 10980, it let the administration address women's status without endorsing the Equal Rights Amendment, which labour opposed.

Eleanor died in November 1962 at 78 after steroid treatment reactivated what?

Kennedy ordered US flags worldwide to half-staff; she was buried beside Franklin in the Rose Garden at Springwood, Hyde Park.

The 1996 Eleanor Roosevelt Monument in Riverside Park was the first New York City park monument to whom?

The sitting First Lady gave the keynote; its granite pavement quotes her 1958 UN speech on universal human rights.

How many years between 1948 and 1961 did Eleanor top Gallup's most admired woman poll?

She was also ninth in Gallup's list of the most admired people of the 20th century, and historians surveyed by Siena College consistently rank her the greatest First Lady.

Which of Eleanor's sons wrote a mystery series with his mother as the detective?

He also co-wrote a tell-all about his parents that his siblings furiously repudiated in 1973.

Which First Lady wrote in her memoir about holding 'imaginary conversations' with Eleanor Roosevelt?

Bob Woodward first reported the practice in 1996; Clinton called Eleanor 'ideal' for the exercise.

Ken Burns's 2014 PBS series about the three most famous members of the family was titled what?

It became the most-streamed documentary on the PBS website to that date and won Peter Coyote an Emmy for narration.

After her parents' deaths, Eleanor was raised by her maternal grandmother in which Hudson Valley town?

Insecure and starved for affection, she thought of herself as the 'ugly duckling'.

As a young woman, what did Eleanor teach in the East Side slums through the New York Junior League?

Her friend Mary Harriman had founded the League; a male relative criticised it for drawing women into public life.

Which two scientists appeared on the premiere of Eleanor's 1950 NBC show Today with Mrs. Roosevelt?

It was Einstein's first time on television; the weekly programme was launched by her son Elliott.

In 2016 the Treasury announced Eleanor would appear on the redesign of which US banknote?

The design, with Marian Anderson and suffragettes, was scheduled for 2020, the centenary of women's suffrage.