Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt

2006

Eleanor Roosevelt was born October 11 , 1884 from a family of lineage wealth , and uncommon sadness . The first child of Anna Hall Roosevelt and Elliott Roosevelt , young Eleanor encountered dissatisfaction early in life . Her father , grief the death of his mother and fighting continuous ill health , turned to alcohol for relief and was absent from home for long periods of time occupied in either business , pleasure or medical treatment . Anna Hall Roosevelt tried to balance her disillusionment with her husband with her responsibilities toward Eleanor and Eleanor 's

br younger brother , Hall . As the years passed , the young mother became increasingly unhappy . An astute and observant child , Eleanor hardly ever failed to notice the tension between her parents and the damage that it placed on both of them . By the time she was six , Eleanor assumed several responsibility for her mother 's happiness , recalling later in her autobiography This Is My Story that "my mother suffered from very bad headaches , and I know now that life must have been hard and bitter and a very great strain on her . I would often sit at the head of her bed and stroke her head . for hours on end " Yet this intimacy was short-lived . Anna Hall Roosevelt , one of New York 's most astonishing beauties , increasingly made young Eleanor extremely self-conscious regarding her conduct and appearance , even going so far as to nickname her "Granny " for her "very plain "old fashioned " and serious behavior . Remembering her childhood , Eleanor later wrote "I was a serious child without beauty . I seemed like a little old woman entirely lacking in the spontaneous joy and mirth of youth

Her mother 's death in 1892 made Eleanor 's commitment to her father all the more intense . Images of a gregarious , larger than life Elliott conquered Eleanor 's memories of him and she longed for the days when he would come back home . She adored his playfulness with her and the manner he loved her with such uncritical abandon . Certainly , her father 's passion simply underscored the loneliness she felt when he was absent Never the dour child in his eyes , Eleanor was instead his "own darling little Nell " Hopes for a happier family life were dashed on the other hand when Elliott Roosevelt died of depression and alcoholism nineteen months later . At the age of ten , Eleanor became an orphan and her grandmother , Mary Hall (1843-1919 , became her guardian , an emotionally cold woman , in Tivoli , New York . She was looked down upon by most of her mother 's family , presumably because , to them , Eleanor had very plain looks and an uncommon six foot tall frame . Not only had her mother 's family thought less of her . Her Hyde Park Roosevelt 's cousin and future mother-in-law Sara Delano Roosevelt used to say disparagingly of her less wealthy Manhattan Roosevelt cousins "we got all the looks and the money " In her grandmother 's home , Eleanor 's Hall uncles were mostly wealthy alcoholic playboys and in recent times...