Eleanor Roosevelt was born on October 11th, 1884 in New York City to the parents of Anna Hall and Elliot Roosevelt. Her mother died in 1892, and shortly thereafter she moved in with her grandmother with her brothers and sisters. Her father died two years after this. She first met Franklin when her friends were all hanging out together at the age of 18 and was soon engaged to her distant cousin by 1903. They were married in 1905 and within eleven years had six children, one of whom died in infancy. They lived in Albany, New York where Franklin was in the state Senate from 1910 to 1913. This is where Eleanor first began being a political helpmate. She helped her husband when he served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy while she gained knowledge about Washington. She soon became active in the women's division of the State Democratic Committee. When Teddy Roosevelt came to the White House in 1933, she understood social conditions better than any of her predecessors and she transformed the role of First Lady. She never dodged official entertaining; she greeted thousands with charming friendliness. She also broke example to hold press conferences, travel to all parts of the country, give lectures and radio broadcasts, and express her opinions candidly in a daily syndicated newspaper column, "My Day." When her husband died in 1945, she returned to a cottage at his Hyde Park estate. Within a year, she had begun her service as the American spokesman in the United Nations. She kept working hard, until her body couldn't take it any more. She died in November of 1962. She was buried in Hyde Park next to her husband. From his successful campaign for governor in 1928 to the day of his death, she dedicated her life to his purposes. She became eyes and ears for him, a trusted and tireless reporter.
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