Who Was Eleanor Roosevelt?
Elizabeth Wolf, Gare Thompson
Language: English
Pages: 24
ISBN: 075692829X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Illustrated by Elizabeth Wolf.
Age range: 8 - 11 Years.
Overview
For a long time, the main role of First Ladies was to act as hostesses of the White House...until Eleanor Roosevelt. Born in 1884, Eleanor was not satisfied to just be a glorified hostess for her husband, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Eleanor had a voice, and she used it to speak up against poverty and racism. She had experience and knowledge of many issues, and fought for laws to help the less fortunate. She had passion, energy, and a way of speaking that made people listen, and she used these gifts to campaign for her husband and get him elected president-four times! A fascinating historical figure in her own right, Eleanor Roosevelt changed the role of First Lady forever.
A biography of the woman who served as First Lady for the longest time, and who was the first President's wife to speak out about important issues of the day, by writing newspapers articles and books, giving radio interviews and speeches, and teaching classes.
her to try harder. Eleanor did. By the end of the first year, she was the best reader in her class! Eleanor also learned to sew, but she never learned to cook! Finally, Eleanor’s father returned home. He was feeling better, but was weak. Often he had to stay in the hospital for months. However, when her father was home, they went on walks again and talked about books. He taught her to feed the horses with a lump of sugar or a piece of apple. They studied nature together. Eleanor’s father
together was when she was about two years old. Then, Franklin had given her a horseback ride. Over the next months, Eleanor found herself spending more and more time with Franklin. And though never as pretty or as witty as her mother or aunts, Eleanor did have dancing partners at the balls. But, by the time the social season was over in December, Eleanor and Franklin were a couple. Far more important to Eleanor than the parties was her work. She remembered helping her father serve
and Eleanor agreed to stay with him. Franklin knew that he needed Eleanor’s help with his career. But their marriage would never be the same. In 1920, James M. Cox ran for president and Franklin ran as his vice president. The Democrats lost. So Franklin, Eleanor, and the children went to their summer home in Campobello, Maine. One night, Franklin became very tired. Eleanor told him to go to bed. But the next day, he could not move his legs! He had polio at age thirty-nine! Polio had been
restaurants, and stay in “blacks-only” hotels. Eleanor knew this was wrong. African-Americans deserved to be treated the same as white people. She tried to make this point whenever she could. Many of Eleanor’s friends and advisers were African-Americans. In 1938, Eleanor’s friend the African-American educator Mary Macleod Bethune asked Eleanor to attend a conference in Birmingham, Alabama. People were going to discuss ways to make the lives of poor people better. Eleanor decided to go. At
F. Kennedy. He wanted to run for president, and he needed Eleanor Roosevelt’s support. He got it, and John Kennedy won, becoming the first Catholic president. Many people felt that Eleanor had helped him win. On November 7, 1962, Eleanor Roosevelt died. She was seventy-eight years old. Leaders from around the world came to her funeral. So many people wanted to say good-bye to this wonderful woman who was laid to rest next to her husband. Adlai Stevenson summed up Eleanor Roosevelt when he