Missie lahan fdr biography

She was responsible for hostess and housekeeping duties, in Eleanor Roosevelt's absence, in addition to her secretarial duties. She was also Roosevelt's traveling companion. Missy retained her many faceted role when Roosevelt re-entered public life, and she remained a resident member of the Roosevelt household at the Governor's Mansion in Albany and later the White House until she suffered a stroke in She died on July 31,in Somerville, Massachusetts.

The papers consist of correspondence, government documents, writings, speeches, photographs, research materials, printed matter, motion picture film, and other material which document William C. The physical and emotional demands of working around the clock for Roosevelt ultimately undermined LeHand's always fragile health. She suffered two minor breakdowns in the s.

In each case, she recovered quickly. However, a severe stroke in left her an invalid. Although he paid all her medical bills and provided for her in his will, Roosevelt saw LeHand only occasionally after her stroke. When she died of a cerebral embolism inhe did not attend her funeral. Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Lash, Joseph P. Scharf, Lois.

Graham and Meghan Robinson Wander.

Missie lahan fdr biography

Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. January 8, Retrieved January 08, from Encyclopedia. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.

Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikisource Wikidata item. Secretary to U. Early life [ edit ]. Partner in illness, politics, and the presidency [ edit ]. Relationship with Roosevelt [ edit ]. Other relationships [ edit ]. Illness, death, and memorials [ edit ].

SS Marguerite LeHand [ edit ]. Representations in television and film [ edit ]. Citations [ edit ]. New York: Touchstone. ISBN In everything but name she was FDR's chief of staff—for the job title was not used by a president until Dwight Eisenhower adopted it to suit his sense of military structure. The Gatekeeper. Archives at Yale. Yale University.

Retrieved September 11, The Potsdam Herald-Recorder. November 4, Archived from the original PDF on February 20, Retrieved December 18, The New York Times. August 1, Retrieved July 1, US Civil Service Commission. Franklin D. National Archives. On the missie lahan fdr biography of July 2,a slender, neatly dressed young woman with dark hair already threaded in silver stepped out of a car at the grass-and-gravel airport in Albany, New York.

Air travel was a new experience for the thirty-five-year-old woman, and though she had taken many other journeys with her boss, New York governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the stakes had never been higher than for this trip. They were flying to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where Roosevelt had been nominated for president of the United States the night before.

From the day in January that she first came to work for FDR as his private secretary, Missy LeHand had found herself in some very unusual places. They included a creaky houseboat meandering down the Florida coast; a tumbledown cottage in Warm Springs, Georgia; and the front seat of a Ford convertible that FDR drove at reckless speeds down country roads in Dutchess County, New York.

He managed the gas and brake with hand controls, as he was paralyzed below the waist. Stricken with poliomyelitis eight months after Missy entered his employ, FDR had found his secretary integral to his rehabilitation and eventual return to public life. Now, after almost four years as governor of New York, he was ready to claim the job he had dreamed of holding since he was a young Manhattan lawyer: the presidency.

Surely Missy felt some trepidation about F. No candidate of either party had ever accepted a nomination in person, and the notion that the candidate would fly—something most Americans had never done—was almost as exotic as that of taking a rocket ship to the moon. Indeed, FDR had not flown for more than a decade, since serving the administration of Woodrow Wilson as assistant secretary of the navy during World War I, making brief sorties in open-cockpit planes in Europe.

Wonsey; a copilot; and a steward who would serve a full lunch in the tight confines of the cabin during the mile journey. Wearing a blue summer-weight double-breasted suit and holding a Panama hat, the Democratic nominee was assisted by Elliott into the plane, FDR characteristically bantering to distract the well-wishers on hand from the sight of a fifty-year-old man who could not get out of his car unaided.

He settled into a seat beside his pretty, blue-eyed secretary and began dictating a telegram to his elderly mother, Sara. Missy left began working for FDR as his executive assistant before he was stricken with polio in As the silver and blue plane roared down the runway and soared into the sky, FDR and his entourage passed around celebratory telegrams, and the steward handed out chewing gum, maps, and American Airways postcards.

Eleanor knitted a baby sweater. The cabin, measuring a mere eighteen feet in length, soon filled with smoke as FDR puffed away on his Camels and Missy on her Lucky Strikes; both smoked two to three packs a day. He lit one cigarette off the butt of another, and his clothing was always dusted with ash. Neither attached much significance to them at the time.

Howe, in his sweltering Chicago hotel room, was writing his own version of the acceptance speech, convinced that launching his boss on the right foot rhetorically was as vital as getting him to the convention in the first place. Everyone in the Roosevelt camp knew that three years into the worst economic depression the country had ever seen, Americans needed hope above all things to pull themselves out of the mire.