Empty Without You

by Roger Streitmatter

  23 Dorothy Dix popularized the personal advice column in American newspapers.

  24 Albert Einstein, the German-born theoretical physicist who formulated the theory of relativity, and his wife Mileva Maric Einstein were overnight guests at the White House.

  25 When staying at the White House, Lorena liked to dine privately on the second floor with Eleanor—in the West Hall in winter, on the South Veranda in summer—rather than in the more public rooms on the first floor.

  26 Eleanor Medill Patterson was editor and publisher of Washington’s Times-Herald, and her brother Joseph Medill Patterson founded New York’s Daily News. They were grandchildren of Chicago Tribune founder Joseph Medill.

  27 Laura Delano was Sara Delano Roosevelt’s younger sister.

  28 Warrenton, Virginia, is located about fifty miles southwest of Washington, D.C.

  29 Agnes Leach was a women’s rights activist who had become a close friend of Eleanor’s while both were active in the League of Women Voters.

  30 Ilo Wallace was the wife of Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace.

  31 Ellen “Bay” Emmet and her cousin Lydia Field Emmet, both artists, had been friends of Eleanor and Isabella Selmes Greenway since their girlhoods.

  32 M. L. Wilson was director of the Subsistence Homestead Program.

  33 Clarence Pickett, executive director of the American Friends Service Committee, was involved in the Arthurdale project, as the Quakers worked hand in hand with the federal government on subsistence homesteads in West Virginia.

  34 Bluette was the name Eleanor and Lorena had given to Lorena’s dark blue Chevrolet convertible.

  35 Eleanor and Franklin traveled to Florida while he was serving as assistant secretary of the Navy between 1913 and 1920. During that same period, Eleanor discovered her husband was having an affair with Lucy Mercer.

  36 Lorena had arranged her schedule so she could return to the White House on February 20 and stay with Eleanor until they departed for Puerto Rico in early March.

  37 Frances Parkinson Keyes was a Washington socialite who wrote occasional magazine articles and achieved considerable popularity as a novelist.

  38 Ike Hoover, the long-time usher at the White House, died in 1933 not long after the Roosevelts moved in.

  39 After Eleanor and Lorena’s trip to the Caribbean, Lorena was scheduled to travel south to Alabama and Louisiana before heading west to Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

  40 Lorena was scheduled to travel to the West Coast in April.

  41 Ellie Morse Dickinson was the woman Lorena had lived with for eight years in Minneapolis and San Francisco.

  42 Arnold Constable was a clothing store in Manhattan.

  43 Milgrim’s was one of the most fashionable women’s apparel shops in Manhattan.

  44 Emma Bugbee was a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune who covered the first lady.

  45 Eleanor misspelled the last name of the most influential newspaper columnist in the country. Although Lippmann generally voiced social and political views that were far more conservative than Eleanor’s, he was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the New Deal.

  46 Galt’s is a jewelry store on Fifteenth Street a block from the White House; it was founded and owned by the family of First Lady Edith Bolling Galt Wilson.

  47 Gus Gennerich was a bodyguard FDR brought with him from Albany.

  48 Molly Dewson was Eleanor’s friend from the 1920s.

  49 The “little Cabinet” was an informal name for members of the administration just below Cabinet rank. FDR had been, as assistant secretary of the Navy, a member of Woodrow Wilson’s “little Cabinet” from 1913 to 1920.

  1 “Relief,” Time, 19 February 1934, 11.

  2 Hickok letter to Harry Hopkins, 7 February 1934, Hickok Papers; Hickok letter to Kathryn Godwin, 18 February 1934, Hickok Papers.

  3 Eleanor letter to Anna Roosevelt Dall, 6 March 1934, Eleanor Roosevelt Papers.

  4 Bess Furman, Washington By-Line: The Personal History of a Newspaperwoman (New York: Knopf, 1949), 197.

  5 Emma Bugbee, “Mrs. Roosevelt Off for Survey of Puerto Rico,” New York Herald Tribune, 6 March 1934, 1.

  6 Furman, Washington By-Line, 197, 200.

  7 Emma Bugbee, “Puerto Ricans Hail Arrival of Mrs. Roosevelt,” New York Herald Tribune, 9 March 1934, 1.

  8 Emma Bugbee, “Storm Forces Mrs. Roosevelt Down in Hayti,” New York Herald-Tribune, 16 March 1934, 1.

  1 John Roosevelt had just had an appendectomy at a Washington hospital.

  2 In response to Lorena’s reports that many government workers who were supposed to be being paid by the Civil Works Administration were not receiving their checks, Eleanor had raised the issue with the president.

  3 On March 27 and 28, the House and Senate overrode the president’s veto of legislation to provide financial bonuses for veterans of World War I and the Spanish-American War. The override was a major political defeat for FDR, with many members of his own party defecting from his camp.

  4 Greenway had joined the majority of House members voting to override the president’s veto on the bonuses for war veterans, the political debacle that had begun to make the Democratic leadership worry that the New Deal initiatives might be sputtering to an end. Greenway then had voted against certain provisions of the National Recovery Administration, which was aimed at stimulating industrial production. In May 1935, the Supreme Court ruled that the NRA was unconstitutional.

  5 Lorena was not scheduled to return to Washington until May 11.

  6 An Easter sunrise service is traditionally conducted at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

  7 Great Falls is a section of rapids on the Potomac River in northern Virginia just outside of Washington.

  8 Jackie Greenway was Isabella Selmes Greenway’s son.

  9 FDR did not approve of Anna being seen publicly with John Boettiger while she was still legally married to Curtis Dall.

  10 Eleanor was traveling to Columbus, Ohio, to give a speech.

  11 Franklin, James, and several other men were on a sailing trip to the Bahamas.

  12 Eleanor referred to spending time in the traditional role of the president’s wife—such as hosting tea parties and shaking hands in receiving lines—as “being Mrs. Roosevelt.”

  13 Royal Copeland was a Republican senator from New York state.

  14 Arnaud’s is a famous News Orleans restaurant.

  15 The Civilian Conservation Corps was a government program that hired unemployed workers for conservation projects such as preventing soil erosion.

  16 Joseph P. Kennedy, a wealthy businessman and supporter of the Democratic Party, and his wife Rose had been guests at the White House the previous several nights. The Kennedys were the parents of President John F. Kennedy.

  17 At various times during 1933 and 1934, Lorena expressed interest in returning to news reporting as a war correspondent in Europe, perhaps even taking her German shepherd along. Eleanor discouraged the idea, however, saying she would hate for Lorena to be so far away from her.

  18 Mary Anderson was a union activist who worked with Eleanor in the Women’s Trade Union League.

  19 Mary Miller was a long-time friend of Eleanor’s whose husband Adolph Miller was a member of the Federal Reserve Board.

  20 Rose Schneiderman was a working-class labor activist who worked with Eleanor in the Women’s Trade Union League.

  21 At various times, Eleanor joined Nan Cook and Marion Dickerman for showings of pieces of furniture being crafted at the Val-Kill factory.

  22 Eleanor often went to the Ft. Myers army base in Virginia to ride her horse, Dot.

  23 Walter White was the head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

  24 Harriet May Mills had been the first director, in the early 1920s, of the Women’s Division of the New York State Democratic Committee.

  25 Eleanor did, in fact, sign a contract with the Simmons Mattress Company to provide five radio commentaries on highlight
s of the week’s news. She used the money to support various charities and social causes.

  26 ER adored Elliott as well. She felt closer to Elliott than to any of her other sons because he was the most like the father whom, during her childhood, she had idolized. Eleanor also feared that Elliott, like her father, was prone to alcoholism and instability. After he failed the entrance exam to Harvard, he continued to have trouble getting his feet on the ground, moving from one career and one woman to another.

  27 Eleanora Duse was an Italian actress Eleanor had known since her childhood.

  28 Senator Thomas Schall of Minnesota had led the attack on Eleanor and the subsistence homestead project, accusing the first lady of selling Val-Kill pieces to the government to furnish the homes at Arthurdale. Eleanor responded that she had founded the factory to provide employment for rural laborers and that she had never made a cent of profit from it.

  29 Hickok report to Harry Hopkins, 4 May 1934.

  30 Josephus Daniels, as secretary of the Navy, had been Franklin’s boss from 1913 to 1920, and his wife Addie Bagley Daniels, a socially concerned aristocrat, had worked with Eleanor in creating the Navy Red Cross.

  31 The Bryan statue that the president dedicated was located near the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge entrance to West Potomac Park; in 1961 it was moved to Bryan’s birthplace in Salem, Illinois. Bryan, who served as secretary of state during the Wilson administration, ran for president in 1896, 1900, and 1908. Eleanor disagreed with many of the stands that Bryan supported. Among many other causes, Bryan was a leader of the Fundamentalist Movement, the Prohibition effort, and the campaign to prevent Darwinian evolution from being taught in American schools.

  32 Eleanor soon learned that quite a lot was happening. After returning from their Caribbean trip, Eleanor and Hick had made a number of recommendations to FDR (during a White House dinner for three), and during the next few months, several of their suggestions were transformed into reality. The responsibility for administering the island was transferred from the War Department to the Interior Department (Eleanor and Lorena’s recommendation), where a separate division of territories was established (also Eleanor and Lorena’s recommendation). In addition, the Puerto Rican Reconstruction Administration was created to expand and stabilize the economy (another Eleanor and Lorena recommendation). Other changes that soon occurred on the island also had their roots in Eleanor and Lorena’s trip—a minimum wage scale was established for women who stitched garments in their homes, federal money was used to replace rickety schools and prisons made of bamboo with new buildings of brick and stone, and codes were established to ensure that products made in Puerto Rico were sold for decent prices.

  33 Eleanor and Lorena were hoping to vacation together in July.

  34 Tobacco Road, originally a novel published by Erskine Caldwell in 1932, is the story of a degenerate family of poor whites living in Georgia. In many ways, the family represented the dregs of society with few redeeming human qualities, which may have been the reason Eleanor found the play distasteful.

  35 Sara Delano Roosevelt was a controlling person who ruled the Springwood mansion at Hyde Park as if she were a queen. After dinner when the family retired to the living room, for example, Sara sat in one of the tooled leather wingback chairs by the fireplace and her son Franklin sat in the other, leaving Eleanor to sit on the floor.

  36 Muscle Shoals was a series of rapids in the Tennessee River that was the site of a massive hydroelectric power project the federal government began in 1918. After spending $15 million on the project, Congress halted it in 1921. After the Roosevelt administration came to power, the Tennessee Valley Authority was established and took over the properties and used them as an example of regional planning.

  37 The Tennessee Valley Authority was a corporation designed to plan for the proper use, conservation, and development of the natural resources of the Tennessee Valley drainage basin.

  38 Banff is a resort city in the province of Alberta and surrounded by the Canadian Rockies.

  39 Lorena was trying to decide what kind of car to buy to replace Bluette. Eleanor was providing the money.

  40 Eleanor was planning to meet Franklin on the West Coast after he returned from a trip to Hawaii. The meeting point initially was Seattle but later was changed to Portland.

  41 Eleanor was critical of the sugar beet industry because of its dependence on child labor.

  42 Sara Delano Roosevelt was planning a holiday in London, staying at Buckingham Palace. Sara relished ceremony and luxury as much as Eleanor abhorred them.

  43 Lorena was in the Imperial Valley on the southern tip of California.

  1 Hickok, Reluctant First Lady, 157–58.

  2 Hickok, Reluctant First Lady, 159.

  3 John L. Sullivan, “President’s Wife Tells Union She Plans ‘Secret’ Auto Tour of California,” Sacramento Union, 13 July 1934, 1; Hickok, Reluctant First Lady, 159.

  4 Hickok, Reluctant First Lady, 161; Sullivan, “President’s Wife Tells Union,” 13 July 1934, 1.

  5 “Mrs. Roosevelt Visits in Marysville, Colfax,” Sacramento Union, 14 July 1934, 1; John Lee, “First Lady Loses Race to Reporters,” San Francisco Examiner, 13 July 1934, 3; Sullivan, “President’s Wife Tells Union,” 13 July 1934, 1; “First Lady in Mount Cabin,” San Francisco Examiner, 14 July 1934, 7; “First Lady’s Auto Heads for Sierras,” San Francisco Chronicle, 13 July 1934, 1.

  6 Hickok, Reluctant First Lady, 168.

  7 Hickok, Reluctant First Lady, 166.

  8 Hickok, Reluctant First Lady, 167; Billy Nelson letter to Eleanor, 14 September 1935, Eleanor Roosevelt Papers.

  9 Hickok, Reluctant First Lady, 170.

  10 Hickok, Reluctant First Lady, 170.

  11 Hickok, Reluctant First Lady, 170.

  12 “Mrs. Roosevelt Visits S.F. in Tourist Role,” San Francisco Examiner, 30 July 1934, 1; “‘First Lady’ Paying Short Visit to S.F.,” San Francisco Chronicle, 30 July 1934, 1; Carolyn Anspacher, “First Lady Tries in Vain for Privacy,” San Francisco Chronicle, 31 July 1934, 1; Hickok, Reluctant First Lady, 174.

  1 Longshoremen had walked off their jobs in May. After two picketers were killed in a violent protest that became known as Bloody Thursday, the action spread to a general strike in July.

  2 Kay Beebe was the Associated Press reporter who originally had been assigned to cover Eleanor during the 1932 campaign but who had transferred to the San Francisco office when she married.

  3 Although Kay Beebe excelled as a pioneering woman journalist for some thirty-five years, she balanced her personal life with her work life and was not as driven by her work as Lorena was.

  4 Nan Cook and Marion Dickerman were vacationing with Eleanor.

  5 In the speech, FDR asserted that the New Deal had brought a rebirth of confidence to the nation and that he was prepared—if he deemed it necessary for the common good—to go to indefinite lengths to extend government control over business.

  6 Major was Eleanor’s German shepherd who had been left at Hyde Park when the Roosevelts moved to Washington.

  7 Earl Miller, the former FDR bodyguard who had become a close friend of Eleanor, was vacationing with her.

  8 Lorena was feeling increasingly concerned about her dog Prinz, who had been confined to a kennel in New York City since she had begun her government job in August 1933.