Three photographs taken by FDR.
Left: Grandmère with James. Center: With Anna on a swing. Right: With my father Elliott.
I’m sure Father fell down here. You couldn’t find, in emotional matters, two such different people as Mother and Father. Father had too much security, too much love. His mother, father, and aunts all doted on him. There was complete security. No really traumatic experience. He was fourteen when he first went to school. His letters show that he realized he was dealing with two doting parents, whom he treated with humor, whereas Mother never had a goddamn soul she could depend on, whose star in heaven she was.
You know that story about Mother breaking down at her dressing table in a fit of weeping. Father quickly got out of the room. I’m sure he could not understand this—Mother’s feeling that nothing was her own: her house, her children, etc.—maybe he could with outsiders, but not when his wife was involved.4
My grandparents with Anna, James, Elliott, and a young friend, are joined by Harry Parish, a family friend, for a sailing trip at Campobello. My grandmother and my father in 1917.
The thing that will always live with me is the fact that I think she grew more than any other human being that I’ve known.
—James Roosevelt
Also, Franklin’s relationship with Sara was dramatically different than Eleanor’s relationship with her mother-in-law. It is again my aunt Anna who, as their eldest child, articulates best the differences:
I saw him being cheeky as hell to Granny. He loved to shock her. Mother stresses much too much how they (Franklin and Sara) used to fight; sure they fought… but on other occasions he would love to outrage Granny, tease her. He could never do that with Mother. She was much too serious. Mother was inhibiting to him. She would never go along.5
This difficult period, I believe, marked the turning point, the beginning of Grandmère’s emergence from Sara’s domination and her assumption of the role of head of the house (FDR chose to distance himself from all matters relating to the household and child-rearing). According to my father, it was the constant chafing against Sara’s will that helped to strengthen Grandmère’s own determination:
My grandfather loved to romp around with his chicks. Here my father is on FDR’s knees.
Grandfather campaigning in Dutchess County in 1910. Opposite, clockwise from top left: Grandmère with my father Elliott in 1913.
My grandmother played a big part in the development of my mother… My grandmother was a very strong, powerful woman… Later, she was forced into the background and her domination started to dwindle with my mother as my mother grew stronger and my mother learned that she had the ability to do things on her own and that she could ignore my grandmother… The net result was that it was my grandmother’s iron will working on Mother that helped to have Mother grow—because Mother had to bump into it all the time, as did Father. Father grew in the same way.
So you see, you don’t always get your development from the all-seeing, wonderful person who guides you… you also get guided by the people who are a terrible, terrible thorn in your side. And you think, “Oh my God, how can I put up with them?” They come through, finally, as helping to develop your character.6
Even though Franklin left the responsibility of the education of his children in the hands of Sara, Eleanor, and a troupe of nannies, he would happily romp with his “chicks” around Springwood and ride, sleigh, and join in a multitude of other weekend activities. Above all, he loved the times at the family’s summer retreat at Campobello Island, a Canadian isle off the coast of Maine, where he shared with the children his love for the sea and sailing.
My grandfather found his career as a legal clerk in the admiralty division with the Carter, Ledyard and Milburn law firm of minimal interest and challenge, and so in 1910 he decided to make his inaugural run for the New York State Assembly. However, at the twelfth hour, the incumbent decided to run for reelection, forcing FDR to challenge for the seat in the heavily Republican Twenty-sixth Senate District. Though party leaders considered his chances for success nil at best, my grandfather waged an enthusiastic campaign and was rewarded with a remarkable landslide victory. Interestingly, as she would later explain, Grandmère was never consulted on his decision to enter politics, but with his victory she realized that their lives would be forever changed.
The Beginning of a Public Life
The changes that Grandmère had anticipated in her life began soon after FDR’s triumph. From the moment they arrived in Albany, she found the atmosphere surrounding the political environment of the State Capitol invigorating, if not reenergizing. She had entered an altogether new period in her life, although certainly not one for which she had prepared herself. Intellectually stimulated, she found her new acquaintances interesting and the world of politics engrossing. She loved spending evenings with FDR and his colleagues discussing issues of the day. But more, and for perhaps the first time in their marriage, she reveled in the closeness of the periods she would spend with my grandfather and his willing openness and inclusion of her in discussions of political matters. No longer hesitant to voice her opinions, many of which were at odds with his, she blossomed into a new maturity, a heightened awareness of her role as the wife of a rising political star. Without doubt, these early days in Albany, and her integration into her husband’s political world, formed the embryo of the emergence of their remarkable lifelong partnership. In that little town, so open to and encouraging of discourse and debate, Grandmère found a strength and a mission that was not only supportive of her husband’s new career but was nourishing for a part of her persona that had been dormant since her days at Allenswood.
Although initially disapproving of her son’s decision to enter the world of politics, Sara most certainly reveled in his success and the attention drawn to him. While a frequent visitor to the young family in Albany, usually on occasions of political significance or when she felt Eleanor was in need of her “assistance,” fortunately Sara did not decide to move there herself.
FDR in the State Senate Chamber in Albany in 1911.
Eleanor took inspiration from the political acumen of the Oyster Bay Roosevelt women, particularly Auntie Bye, and found that the more she engaged others, the more sought after she was for her own opinions. My aunt Anna remembered this as being perhaps the time when Grandmère realized that she too had personal ambition. Her aunts Maude and Pussie regarded her as belonging to their generation, and perhaps expected her to carry the torch lit in her younger years by the TR clan. But Grandmère didn’t think of herself as glamorous like her aunts and cousins, which is why, until now, she had remained eclipsed from participating more fully in public life. At some point, however, she must have realized that she had a strong desire to be successful as an individual. I have to think that Grandmère was delighted to find that she was being accepted as a person in her own right, not just as the wife of FDR. She was not utterly transformed, but certainly the transformation was beginning.
Louis Howe became a crucial ally in my grandfather’s political career. From left to right: Louis, Tom Lynch (a campaign supporter), FDR, and a very timid-looking ER.
Throughout this period, life in general was settling nicely for Eleanor and Franklin. FDR was thoroughly ensconced in his political routine, and Grandmère had settled the family into a routine that she, not her mother-in-law, determined, a routine that allowed her more time with her children and husband.
It was during this period that Franklin and Eleanor met Louis Howe, a man who in Grandmère’s view was neither refined nor particularly stimulating, but who would forever change the course of their lives. Pokey and disheveled, urbane in speech and manner, and seldom without a cigarette dangling from his mouth, this wily newspaper reporter would quickly entwine himself in their futures. Louis early on recognized the potential of this young politician and immediately began nurturing a friendship. Hungry for power himself but realistic enough to recognize his political limitations, he attached his star to that of Fran
klin Roosevelt. He was uncannily shrewd and a master of developing public opinion and support, and his devotion to both Franklin and Eleanor would make him one of the most influential and driving forces behind their collective successes. In the course of the years, Louis Howe would achieve a level of political power, influence, and importance even he could not have imagined.
My grandparents and their political supporters on their 1920 campaign trip.
Barely a year into his first term as senator, Franklin Roosevelt (or at least his name) was being bandied about political circles as a potential gubernatorial candidate even though many considered him a political “prude,” “progressive,” and too much in the mold of Theodore Roosevelt. His famous relative, in the meantime, was attracting both Democrats and Republicans in an effort to unseat then-President Taft; having defected the Republican Party, he was now heading the Bull Moose Party. FDR, faced with a split within his own party between the conservative wing and the more progressive Wilsonian faction, decided to cast his lot with the latter. Although the initial prospects for his own reelection seemed dim, the chaos reigning within the Republican ranks assured his success at the polls once more. On Election Day, Woodrow Wilson emerged as the resounding victor for the presidency, but unfortunately this meant that cousin Teddy was soundly defeated. While ecstatic at their own political success on the local level and at the Democrats’ success at the national level, a personal sadness also pervaded Eleanor and Franklin. Their beloved Teddy, the one political inspiration upon whom FDR had attributed so much of his own political underpinnings and philosophy, had been defeated. My grandparents realized that this could signal the beginning of the end of the political career of one of the nation’s most brilliant and exciting leaders, a man who had forever transformed the meaning of American politics, and a mentor to them both.
In a different vehicle, but on the same campaign trip in 1920.
Splitting and Coming Together
Much has been written and surmised about the split between the two branches of my family, and many suppositions put forth about the causes. From what I can tell, it was the 1920 election that sowed the seeds of discord. Since entering politics, FDR had quite successfully and unabashedly drawn upon the reverence for and popularity of his distant cousin. This was a way to narrow the gap of political philosophy between his Democrat supporters and Republicans, particularly important since most all of his campaigns had been in either marginally Democratic districts or those ensconced in Republican ideology. It cannot be said, however, that his paralleling of philosophies with those of TR was disingenuous. FDR not only held TR in the highest esteem both personally and politically, he even credited Theodore with influencing the core values of his own political beliefs. And for Eleanor, of course, Theodore Roosevelt was both her uncle and surrogate father; she adored him above all other family members. She was, after all, born and raised in that “Oyster Bay Republican” political philosophy.
However, many members of the Oyster Bay Roosevelt branch felt that if any Roosevelt should be garnering national recognition during this election it should be TR Jr., not the upstart FDR. According to cousin Alice, her side of the family did not support FDR’s adventure in politics because of an attitude of a priori presumptuousness:
We all wondered how Franklin would vote in the 1904 election—for his party or for his cousin. And he chose his cousin. We never returned the favor and none of our family ever voted for Franklin as far as I knew. We called him a maverick. We behaved terribly. There we were the Roosevelts hubris up to the eyebrows, beyond the eyebrows, and then who should come sailing down the river but Nemesis in the person of Franklin. We were out. Run over.7
FDR’s exploitation of Teddy’s popularity and achievements caused great resentment, so much so, in fact, that the National Republican Committee quickly recruited TR Jr. to dog FDR’s public appearances, denouncing him as a maverick without “the brand of our family.” FDR would respond to these attacks by TR Jr. by saying that “in 1912 Senator Harding called Theodore Roosevelt first a Benedict Arnold and then an Aaron Burr. This is one thing at least some members of the Roosevelt family will not forget.” Senator Harding had at the time considered TR’s bolting from the Republican Party an unforgivable act of political treason. Grandmère was shocked by the attacks on her husband by certain members of her closest family, and was devastated by the personal nature of the denouncements. Her relationship with Alice was never again the same, and it is said that she and TR Jr. never spoke again. The rupture between the two sides of the family remained for many years, often with family members having neither real understanding of the circumstances nor recollection of the causes. Although several of us had close friendships with members of the opposite side of the clan, and a certain pride and respect for the achievements of our ancestors, it was not until the late 1980s that the healing process began at a joint reunion of the Hyde Park and Oyster Bay Roosevelts at Springwood. I am delighted to say that these reunions continue on a fairly regular basis today, usually every other year, at various locales connected with the family: Springwood, Sagamore Hill, Campobello, the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, and elsewhere. And as my generation and the next become well acquainted, there shall be greater understanding of the legacy of our ancestors and fewer divides between us. In many ways, I think it is a rediscovering of our own roots, and of the importance of not just the three most prominent family members in our nation’s history but of so many others as well.
FDR with President Woodrow Wilson listening to Secretary Daniels speaking at Flag Day celebrations. From left to right: William Jennings, President Woodrow Wilson, Henry Breckinridge, and Secretary Joseph Daniels.
Grandmère on a reviewing stand during my grandfather’s campaign.
On to Washington
Soon after Wilson’s impressive victory and Franklin’s own reelection to the New York Senate, his early support of the new president was rewarded. Early in 1913 Josephus Daniels, the Secretary of the Navy, asked Franklin if he would be interested in a position in the administration as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. FDR was ecstatic; how could he not be interested? First, it appealed to his singularly great passion, a love of the ocean and ships. And of course it thrust him onto the Washington political scene in a position of authority, visibility, and responsibility. This fit right within the patterned prescription that FDR had defined for his political career, and closely paralleled the path of TR’s own success. On March 17, 1913, on the eighth anniversary of their marriage, FDR took the oath of office to this position, and everyone congratulated him on this fundamental step in a rapidly rising career in Washington. Whereas his new boss, Secretary Daniels, was a hopeless landlubber with little understanding of the Navy, its importance, or its hierarchy, Roosevelt immediately built upon his knowledge and keen interests to form a base of respect and admiration within the service, and more often than not found himself at odds with his superior. Realizing that he needed the help of someone loyal to his ambitions and well versed in “making things happen,” FDR once more relied on his most loyal aide, Louis Howe, who immediately joined him in Washington.
Far left: 2131 R Street, Washington, DC, became my grandparents’ home when FDR entered the Navy Department. Left: Grandmère with baby Franklin, Jr., the second baby to bear that name.
For Grandmère, the move from New York was unnerving. Fulfilling her obligations as a Washington political wife was a much greater task than it had ever been in quiet Albany, but Grandmère went about it with enthusiasm and high energy. Men and women alike admired her easy manner and friendly approach, her inexhaustible energy, and the wisdom she offered in her opinions. The social obligations of the Assistant Secretary were heavy, but buoyed by her successes in Albany she was confident that she could rise to whatever occasion presented itself.
While in Washington, the young family rented Auntie Bye’s house, very nearly across the street from the Executive Office Building, the location of FDR’s office, and began settling
in. The lives of the children now revolved almost totally around their father, even though he still refused to assume any responsibility for their discipline. He would refuse, for example, to scold the children when on occasion they would drop paper sacks filled with water on the heads of arriving guests to the house, excusing their acts as “childish but harmless pranks.” My father, Elliott, once described my grandfather’s method of discipline.
The children learned early in life that when Mother tried to discipline them they could always go and get around that discipline with Granny…. Father was the one who used to take us… into his office… off the cloakroom in the house, when Mother would send one of the small boys in and say, “Franklin, there is this terrible thing that this one has done.” And it was either instructions to spank him or to give him a good lecture. Father was known to sit you down and say, “Well, now I think it’s time that you let out a yell, and then she’ll think I’ve hit you, and that will be enough because I don’t think what you did was serious enough to be spanked.” Or it was something that she sent you in for that you had to be talked to, as happened when you were slightly older—sixteen, seventeen, eighteen years old and had cars and were driving. Father would say, “All right, we’ll just talk here for a while, and when you go out, look very grave.”… So he was not a disciplinarian—Mother was—but Mother was overruled ninety percent of the time by Granny.8
Grandmère Page 12
