Picnics were a favorite form of entertaining for Grandmère, and here she is with students from the Todhunter School.
Grandmère, Nancy and Marion at a campout, probably at Val-Kill before completion of the Stone Cottage.
A few months later Marion, who was a teacher and vice-principal of Todhunter, a private school for girls in New York, was offered the opportunity to buy the school. Eleanor, whose ambitions were never fully satisfied by Val-Kill Industries, proposed that they partner in its purchase and that she herself become one of the teachers. Progressive teaching of young women was something close to Grandmère’s heart, for her own awakening had been provoked by the most wonderful teacher of all, Mlle. Souvestre, whose example she had always tried to emulate. She hoped to stimulate young women to a perception of life that went beyond their social circumstances and that opened their personal boundaries. Teaching at Todhunter provided some of the happiest moments in her life, and the pupils quickly fell in love with her and were greatly inspired by her.
By now, with Todhunter, Val-Kill Industries, and political and business obligations keeping her busy, Grandmère had little time or interest in maintaining any of the vestiges of a “society” life. New close friendships reinforced Grandmère’s confidence and encouraged her to take risks and dream of new worlds. Isabella Greenway, Esther Lape, Elizabeth Reed, and Caroline O’Day gave her unstinting friendship. Life partners Marion and Nancy helped her to find sanctuary from her busy schedule. Their devotion raised eyebrows, but gossip did not undercut their friendship. Some friends permitted themselves to wonder about the true nature of the relationship between Grandmère, Marion, and Nancy, but I think my uncle James addressed that question in his own book, My Parents:
It’s true they were very close. In fact they shared Val-Kill. They shared it to the extent that the linen was embroidered with the initials EMN (Eleanor, Marion, Nancy)…. I think the situation satisfied a need for companionship each of them had.6
The list of activists with whom Grandmère was involved grew increasingly large and included the most prominent women in this breakthrough period of social change. The more involved she became, the more impressive and effective she proved, to the point that she was recruited for so many boards and official roles with so many organizations that it is hard to imagine from whence her time and energy (a continuing source of astonishment throughout her lifetime) emanated. Through it all, Louis Howe pushed her ever harder to achieve, to be a voice for progressive and often controversial stands. Louis recognized in her a tremendous potential force, and he viewed her involvement as instrumental for keeping FDR firmly entrenched in both local and national politics. Grandmère’s demeanor broke the stereotypical view of women politicians, and New York Times writer S. J. Woolf noted that “She is the strongest argument that could be presented that by entering politics a woman is bound to lose her womanliness and charm.” By the time Franklin ran for governor of New York, Eleanor was far better positioned than he, knew more political leaders and activists, and was more versed in all the important issues of the day. Her influence on women’s issues—education, labor, health, and welfare—was one of Franklin’s strongest assets and helped him to form his most progressive social policies for the entirety of his career.
Eleanor’s efforts on behalf of the Democratic Party continued, and by 1927 the Democratic women were strongly organized throughout the state. Alfred E. Smith, governor of New York during these years, considered Eleanor a strong ally, partly as a representative of her husband but more importantly in her own right as a leader among women. He wanted to be nominated by the Democratic Party for the 1928 presidential election, and he counted on both Franklin and Eleanor for support in his bid. With Smith’s encouragement and endorsement, FDR was considered a natural candidate for the U.S. Senate race as well. However, the preference for Franklin to seek the governorship was echoed throughout the party, and his family, including Eleanor, encouraged him to take the challenge. When Franklin chose to dedicate himself completely to the role of leader for the Democrats, he realized he would have less time for family and for efforts toward his full physical recovery. Eleanor, although highly ambivalent about what his run would mean for her and the children, encouraged him when many people questioned his physical ability to withstand such an arduous campaign.
As Election Day approached, Smith’s defeat seemed almost certain, but then the wave of enthusiasm for Roosevelt picked up, culminating in his victory. Although Grandmère was happy for Franklin, she knew that as the wife of the new governor of New York she would have to resign from party committees and perhaps from any form of political involvement at all.
The 1929 Gubernatorial Inauguration Parade with FDR, FDR, Jr. (far left), former Governor and Mrs. Al Smith (left of FDR), and James.
The Return to Albany
Grandmère immediately began making the necessary arrangements to accommodate the large Roosevelt family and entourage in the executive mansion in Albany. This move meant a complete change of life for her, and once more she wondered what she would do. Even though less directly involved, she was determined to make a success of the Val-Kill Industries. She also continued teaching at Todhunter, and was determined to be a proper mother to her sons, who were now all at Groton, except for James, who was at Harvard. Added to these were new responsibilities as First Lady of New York and mistress of the gubernatorial mansion. But if she failed to fully see what contribution she had to make to Franklin’s new role, her friends quickly pointed out that her influence was just as important as his and that she had a new and useful role to fulfill in this position of power.
Eleanor had already shaped Franklin’s view of women’s impact on the nation’s politics and tempered his political outlook and governance. Now she influenced and helped to shape the character of his administration. Together they hoped to bring a unique mark to the political process while living up to the exemplary example set by Teddy Roosevelt when he had occupied that same mansion as governor thirty years before.
Once again that great house quickly took on the informal character of a typical Roosevelt household. Its guest rooms were always full, and large groups of colleagues and friends sat down for lunch and supper. Houseguests commingled with political leaders, and, as ever, Eleanor was a gracious, elegant, and warm hostess who included everyone—workers, secretaries, journalists, friends, and distinguished guests—for tea, which was served in the family room from 4:30 to 6:00 P.M every afternoon she was at Albany. On Sunday evenings she would take the train to New York City to teach classes at Todhunter from Monday to Wednesday, when she would return to the mansion for her “at homes.” She was remarkably efficient and ran her household smoothly and happily, to the great wonder of her many friends, who thought her powers prodigious. Her calendar was always packed full of activities, and many of her political interests were adapted to better suit her new position. She no longer made political speeches or served on the boards of civic organizations that lobbied for legislation in Albany, and she kept discreetly away from outward involvement in anything that could be seen as influencing her husband’s work. By May, however, Franklin encouraged her to attend Democratic meetings to talk to women about the importance of being of service in politics and to champion women’s lobbies for protective legislation for children and women workers.
Part of the governor’s job was to inspect state institutions, something that would be physically trying for Franklin, so he usually sent Eleanor to meet the local officials and carry out the inspections. He was a severe and commanding taskmaster, demanding that she pay scrupulous attention to detail during her tours of the institutions and that she report back to him on every aspect, from the food served to lies hidden behind officials’ facial expressions. Eleanor soon learned to be Franklin’s eyes and ears, often arriving unannounced for these institutional visits. By the time she left Albany she was able to function as if she inhabited Franklin’s body, observing life just as he would and reporting back in a way that would help h
im understand every situation.
FDR and Er surrounded by family members, on Christmas Day 1930 in the Governor’s Mansion, Albany.
Although Grandmère took pride in Val-Kill Industries and in her teaching and lecturing at Todhunter, there was a growing public interest in her as First Lady of Albany and in the ways in which she used the Governor’s Mansion as a springboard for good works, to answer pleas from their constituents, and to link their lives with those of the people. Franklin supported her by assuring his state officials that he and Eleanor were a team, and they in turn began to ask for her support for their new ideas and programs. In 1930 Franklin was elected for a second term in a landslide victory of a margin of 725,000 votes, something unheard of for a Democrat in the state of New York.
Molly Dewson, a powerful force in New York politics, became a close advisor and confidant to Grandmère as FDR began his race for second term as governor.
ER and FDR at Warm Springs, where FDR sought a cure for his paralysis.
His success as governor promoted him to the forefront of the Democratic Party, which saw his patrician flair, political vision, and good governance as promising indeed. Officials began maneuvering him toward the prize he wanted most of all, the presidency. Eleanor never wanted to become a president’s wife, for she knew only too well how restrictive the role of First Lady would be, and she viewed this position as embodying less power rather than more influence for herself. But once again she found herself swept up in Franklin’s life ambitions, regarding the future with a sense of deprivation and anxiety. Her continued work at Todhunter, with labor and women’s issues would be threatened by becoming a First Lady. Franklin’s plans put in jeopardy her sense of identity and belonging; as he gained centrality in the shaping of national politics, she felt keenly that everything she had would collapse in his path of victory. There was nothing she wanted less than to ride on the coattails of his success. Part of her problem was that she could not say no to him, for she believed as his partner and as a Democrat that he would energize the country, which was drowning in the difficulties of an impending depression.
And so, once more Grandmère put aside her fears and concerns to actively support him. Women’s involvement in the party’s politics had raised the vote by as much as 20 percent, and the Democratic women of the state believed that this kind of political awareness could be taken to the entire nation. By the spring of 1931, Louis Howe had opened the Friends of Roosevelt offices in Manhattan, and Eleanor, lest she be seen as being too involved, suggested that Molly Dewson, civic secretary of the Women’s City Club and a potent political force in women’s politics, serve as her deputy, effectively working as if she were Eleanor. Like Grandmère, Molly was a power in local and state political circles, serving as civic secretary at the Women’s City Club. Grandmère helped in every way she could, making suggestions to the women’s division of her husband’s campaign and helping his biographers.
She also traveled extensively, and although she never directly spoke of the campaign, she encouraged women to think for themselves in political choices and alerted them to the vision of the Democratic Party. She was adamant that she drive everywhere by herself, which made both Franklin and Louis nervous, and her husband insisted that Earl Miller, a New York state trooper and former amateur welterweight champion, become her bodyguard. Earl’s roughneck qualities endeared him to Eleanor, and he became as close an ally to her as Louis. Earl Miller soon became yet another member of the extended household, even eating his meals with the family. Speculation over the years about the relationship between Earl and Grandmère was to be frankly discussed by my uncle James in the book Mother & Daughter:
I believe there may have been one real romance in mother’s life outside of marriage. Mother may have had an affair with Earl Miller… I believe it is important to realize that… Victorian as mother may have been, she was a woman, too, who suffered from her self-imposed separation from father.7
Uncle James recalled Earl as “an extremely handsome and physical man.” When he became Grandmère’s bodyguard “his fellow officers originally teased him about being assigned to ‘that old crab,’ but she took an interest in him, her warmth won him over, and when others saw how he felt about her they stopped kidding him about his “awful assignment”:
Mother was self-conscious about Miller’s youth, but he did not seem bothered by the difference in years. He encouraged her to take pride in herself, to be herself, to be unafraid of facing the world. He did a lot of good for her. She seemed to draw strength from him when he was by her side, and she came to rely on him. When she had problems, she sought his help… He became part of the family, too, and gave her a great deal of what her husband and we, her sons, failed to give her. Above all, he made her feel that she was a woman.
Earl Miller took this photograph of my grandfather, great-grandmother Sara, Grandmère, and other family members at the pool in Val-Kill.
If father noticed, he did not seem to mind. Curiously, he did promote a romance between Miller and Missy (grandfather’s factotum), but that did not last. Miller, who’d had an unhappy first marriage, later married a cousin of his first wife, and that ended the gossip about mother and him. But this was not a happy marriage either. He was divorced in 1934.
All the while, Miller had continued to see mother and frequently was at Val-Kill. He saw other women too, and she encouraged his romances. He married a third time in 1941, though he continued to see mother regularly. This marriage was a failure, too, I believe. Maybe because of mother. Their relationship deepened after father’s death and ended only with mother’s death. From my observations, I personally believe they were more than friends… 8
During that period, Grandmère worried about the children and the fact that Franklin seldom saw them. When he did he was far too busy with the campaign to be able to contribute effectively to their emotional needs. Anna was having problems with her husband, my father Elliott moved restlessly from one job to another, and the youngest brothers were driving too fast and too recklessly. Perhaps their father’s position increased their bravado, making them think that they were above scrutiny, but the fact that they were robbed of their time with him, of his wisdom and companionship, certainly had an effect on all the children. Grandmère found herself in the uncomfortable role of sole disciplinarian, wishing she had more positive support from Franklin and Sara in these matters.
Grandmère with Earl Miller, her bodyguard, close friend, and companion, and with whom it has been said she had an affair.
As the states fell in line and Franklin’s presidential campaign strengthened, Eleanor contemplated her entry into the gilded captivity she associated with becoming First Lady. Friends were baffled by her calm detachment from the excitement, as few of them could read her inner dilemma. On the long night of the nomination, Franklin sat in his shirtsleeves chain-smoking while she knitted a turtleneck sweater for asthma-racked Louis Howe. Finally the phone call arrived for which Franklin had been waiting: he was anointed the Democratic candidate to the White House. The morning after, he flew to Chicago to show that he intended to be an energetic leader to the country, and if Eleanor contemplated the weeks ahead with apprehension and dread, she nevertheless pitched into the campaign with her usual vigor and dedication.
FDR on campaign trail in 1930, my father in the background; being sworn in for his second term as Governor of New York; giving a “whistle stop” speech; and with Grandmère on the trail.
Eleanor quickly became enveloped in the many details of the presidential campaign, from the printing of fliers that were packaged editorially to appeal to women voters to the smoothing of relations between everyone on the team. The Depression’s grim signs were everywhere in America. It was her firm belief that if—and only if—people understood the reasons for the collapse of the nation’s economic structure it would be possible for them to implement the changes needed to emerge from the Depression. In all her speeches she asked her listeners to prepare themselves to accept the economic c
hanges, changes that would require everyone to work together to transform the collapsed economy.
Grandmère with Malvina “Tommy” Thompson, loyal and constant secretary and companion.
ER in a rare moment of leisure at the Governor’s mansion.
In the mounting hysteria of Franklin’s impending victory, Eleanor remained strangely detached and composed. She knew that the role of First Lady would restrict her freedom and that she would have to give up many of the activities and involvements that she found so rewarding. From the beginning, Eleanor thought that the best thing for First Lady would be to retreat and to once again confine her activities to those that would not touch on her husband’s politics. She hoped that Grandfather would use her skills in the White House and she offered to help answer and organize his mail, to handle his calendar, and to travel around the country on his behalf. He said no to all, refusing every offer she made. She was plunged in such deep depression that she wrote to my aunt Anna, “I turn my face to the wall.” Finally, Louis Howe and Lorena Hickock helped her to find a way out of the dark mood that had gripped her from the election. As she listened and considered the men surrounding the presidency, she feared that FDR’s power and enormous charisma would prevent anyone, even Louis Howe, from telling him the truth, and that these men would be so influenced by him as to always say yes. The idea began to form in her mind that perhaps she could serve as my grandfather’s listening post, and that her understanding of the problems that faced the great masses could help to educate the president in his legislative and policy initiatives. She hoped Franklin could alleviate the nation’s difficulties with the right decisions, decisions she could help him make working together, once more and as always, like a team.
Grandmère Page 16
