The three Roosevelt connections

Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt are three of the most consequential people in all of American history. They also have a connection to each other, which people rarely explore. This is a complicated family drama.

Franklin, who was a Hyde Park Roosevelt, was the fifth cousin of Theodore, who was an Oyster Bay Roosevelt. Franklin was also a fifth cousin of his wife, Eleanor, who was the daughter of Theodore’s younger brother, Elliott.

Theodore was a Republican, Franklin was a Democrat, but what they shared in common was amazing. They were able to overcome adversities in their lives such as the childhood asthma of Theodore and the polio that Franklin got at age 39. They were both great with people. They both had unfounded optimism and a sense of direction. They were both concerned about people who were less fortunate.

Overcoming fear was both Theodore and Franklin’s central theme, and it was obviously true with Eleanor. Her father was a hopeless alcoholic and almost insane. Her mother was incredibly cruel to her. Both of her parents passed away before she was 12 years old, and her grandparents raised her.

Theodore lost his mother and his wife on the same day, February 14, 1884, in the same house. Alice, his wife, had given birth a couple of days before to their only child. Theodore then went to the West, to the Dakotas and remade himself.

Over the years, the Roosevelts dealt with alcoholism, depression, rehab and multiple divorces, but that was not how people traditionally envisioned them. When we attempt to excavate stories from American history, the thing that hits us over the head every day is how modern, how contemporary, how very much like today every moment in history is and nothing is more so than the story of the Roosevelts.

Very few political marriages have been as analyzed as the marriage between FDR and Eleanor. There is little doubt that Franklin married Eleanor because he loved her. He married her because she had a conscience and he married her because she was very smart and could challenge him.

Yes, Franklin betrayed her once with Lucy Mercer but he did not have a harem of mistresses. Franklin and Eleanor were very complex people, therefore they found a way to go on and become the most formidable husband and wife team to ever occupy the White House.

HHJ News