The Children of FDR

By Carrie Lofty

Franklin Delano Roosevelt had six children with his wife, Eleanor, although the first FDR Jr., born in 1909, also died that year. A second FDR Jr. would eventually be christened in 1914. Thus five of his children survived into adulthood, all of whom lived to advanced ages during a tumultuous century.

His firstborn, a daughter named Anna, emerged into the world only 14 months after her parents' marriage. During two marriages, first to a stockbroker and then to a newspaper editor, she was active in both writing and editing. As Eleanor Roosevelt began to take a more active interest in social causes, FDR invited Anna to move into the White House and serve as the official hostess. Thus Anna was preset at the Yalta Conference and for many of the major political functions during WWII. Eventually she and her third husband became active in labor relations, the Kennedy Administration, and various other political and public relations enterprises. She died in 1975 of throat cancer at the age of 69.

FDR welcomed his first son into the world a year after Anna. After attending Harvard and the Boston School of Law, James Roosevelt campaigned for his father's 1932 election. His business in insurance became so successful that he dropped out of law school and began working full-time for his father's administration in 1937, first as Presidential Secretary. He became a commissioned Lieutenant Colonel in the Marine Corps, serving first as an attache to British forces before requesting an active duty post. He served with the controversially forward-thinking Marine Raiders and earned the Silver Star, eventually retiring as a Brigadier General in 1959. He also went to Hollywood, then served as a US Representative from California between 1955-65, during which time he actively spoke against Joseph McCarthy. He eventually published several memoirs, married four times, and fathered seven children. He died at age 83 in 1991 of Parkinson's, the last of FDR's children.

Elliott Roosevelt was born in 1910, eventually following in his older brother's footsteps by becoming an active member of the Armed Forces during WWII. He enlisted in the US Army Air Corps, the forerunner to the Air Force, and served as a pilot and commander. After flying over 300 combat missions, he retired a brigadier general upon the war's conclusion. He never achieved the same level of success in civilian life. He raised horses in Portugal, worked on a ranch in Texas, and lived on the property Eleanor bought on his behalf. He died in 1990 at age 80, after having been married five times. He fathered five children and adopted four.

FDR's third surviving son, name FDR Jr., contracted a serious strep infection in 1936 that was successfully treated with new sulfonamide antibiotics. Because of his father's fame, FDR Jr.'s recovery and the press that followed ushered in a new era of antibiotic acceptance among the US public, which greatly aided in wartime medicine. He eventually married five times and fathered five children, with his primary life's work revolving around politics and the law. He also imported cattle and Fiats, until his death in 1988 of throat cancer on his 74th birthday.

The last child born to FDR and Eleanor was John Aspinwall Roosevelt. He served in the US Navy as a lieutenant and received the Bronze Star. After marrying a woman whose father was staunchly Republican, John "defected" to the Republican Party, which caused considerable friction in his solidly Democratic family. That tension only increased as he actively campaigned for the likes of Eisenhower and Nixon. Despite his active interest in politics, he was the only of his brothers who never campaigned for public office. He retired as vice president of an investment firm in 1980, before heading up various charity organizations. He married only twice and fathered four children before his death in 1981 at age 65.

What I find most fascinating about the Roosevelt children is the participation in armed service. Can you imagine the children of any modern-era president serving on the front lines of a major conflict, or even being allowed to do so? Amazing, really!

SONG OF SEDUCTION's sequel from Carina Press, PORTRAIT OF SEDUCTION, is now available! Later this year watch for Carrie's new Victorian series from Pocket, as well as her "Dark Age Dawning" romance trilogy from Berkley, co-written with Ann Aguirre under the name Ellen Connor. "Historical romance needs more risk-takers like Lofty." ~ Wendy the Super Librarian

Love Affairs: FDR & Lucy Mercer

By Carrie Lofty

"The cruelty, the impolitic cruelty...of dividing, or attempting to divide, two young people long attached to each other, is terrible."

Colonel Brandon in SENSE & SENSIBILITY

Despite objections by his mother, Franklin Delano Roosevelt united the two opposing Roosevelt clans in 1905 by marrying his distant relation, Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor in turn bore six children over the subsequent ten years, with one dying at seven months. A shy woman, Eleanor contented herself with raising the children, while FDR was handsome, socially active, and politically ambitious.

He began an affair with Eleanor's secretary, Lucy Mercer, in 1914. Lucy was the product of two prominent Maryland and Virginia families, although her parents had fallen on hard times. Although he would go on to have many other private affairs throughout his marriage, FDR maintained a special closeness with Lucy.

Eleanor found letters from Lucy in his luggage when, sick with the 1918 flu, he returned home from WWI. Historians differ as to whether Eleanor then offered the chance to divorce and be with the woman he loved, or if she actually threatened divorce. No matter; Lucy refused to marry a divorced man with five children because she was devout Catholic. (Apparently her level of devotion did not preclude having a lifelong affair with that same man.) His mother also weighed in, insisting that his inheritance would be forfeit. FDR vowed never to see Lucy again.

With the possibility of divorce behind them, FDR and Eleanor reconciled after a fashion. She had never enjoyed sex--and many of her biographers have since speculated as to whether she was a lesbian--but sexual relations between the two never resumed. Eleanor soon established a separate household, and although she officially lived at the White House upon his election, she never stayed there for long. She had been a socially awkward girl, but the Depression and the war gave her myriad social causes. Her husband's power and their shared political goals became the bedrock of what remained of their marriage.

In the meantime, Lucy married a New York socialite named Winthrop Rutherford in 1920 and eventually bore one child. Somewhere during the years that followed, FDR broke his promise. He continued to correspond with Lucy throughout his trying presidency and began to see her again. He arranged for her to have a special, secret place from which to view his 1933 inauguration. The Secret Service even referred to her as "Mrs. Johnson," which indicates the level of intimacy she maintained within the White House. The split between him and Eleanor was so profound by this point that, in 1942, when he asked her to return to him in light of his failing health, she refused.

FDR's daughter Anna had arranged for him to meet Lucy at his retreat home in Georgia in April, 1945, where he suffered his fatal cerebral hemorrhage. As the Secret Service ineffectually rushed to the president's aid, Lucy retreated to another cottage on the same property to hide. She eventually died in 1947 of leukemia at the age of 57.

Dynasties: The Roosevelts

By Carrie Lofty

While most people know that the United States has had two presidents named Roosevelt, very few can identify how they were related.

"Roosevelt" means "Rose of the Fields" in Dutch. The first Roosevelt, a Dutchman named Claes van Rosevelt, arrived in Nieuw Amsterdam in the middle of the 17th century. He bought a twenty-acre farm in mid-town Manhattan, including the site of the Empire State Building. By the 18th century, however, the family divided into two branches: Johannes Roosevelt (1689-1750) founded the clan in Oyster Bay, New York, while his younger brother, James Jacobus Roosevelt (1692-1776), founded the Hyde Park branch.

Fast forward a hundred years and you'll find that the Roosevelts were incredibly influential in New York, successful in business, and active in politics (on opposing sides: the Oyster Bay family became Republicans after the Civil War, while the Hyde Park membership remained Democrats). Among their number included an inventor, an Assistant Secretary of the Navy, a portrait painter, the co-founder of the Bank of New York, an opera singer in Paris, a diplomat, the wife of a Massachusetts governor, a famous poet and orator, a pianist and composer, a gold medal-winning yachtsman, and an Archbishop of Baltimore.

Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, was born in 1858. A sickly child, he learned all about the natural sciences and history before applying himself toward growing physically strong. He became an avid boxer when he attended Harvard. After serving as a Lieutenant Colonel in the US military during the Spanish-American War, he was elected vice president. William McKinley was assassinated in 1901, which made Roosevelt the youngest man ever to assume the presidency. He was 42.

Theodore's brother Elliott was two years his junior. Elliott sired three daughters, one of whom was Anna Eleanor Roosevelt. Her Uncle Teddy, while he was still president, gave Eleanor away when she married Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the Hyde Park Roosevelts. Their marriage not only solidified a political dynasty but reunited the families. (Here they're pictured courting in 1903.)

If you do the math, Theodore and Franklin were fifth cousins, which meant they were more closely related by marriage than by blood.

Franklin Roosevelt, of course, went on to set his own records as the 32nd President of the United States. He was elected to more terms (four) and served more years in office (twelve) than any other leader, and presided over two monumental crises in US history: the Great Depression and World War II. He remained a Democrat, in keeping with the rest of the Hyde Park branch, but his left-wing policies single-handedly shifted the political spectrum so that "Democrat" came to mean "liberal."

The Roosevelts' children did not shirk service to their country just because of their influential fathers. Teddy's son, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., went on to become a brigadier general. He and his brothers Kermit and Archibald served in both world wars. Their youngest brother, Quentin, was killed in action over France in 1918. All four of FDR's sons served during WWII: James in the Marine Corps, Franklin Jr. and John in the Navy, and Elliott in the US Army Air Corps.

While Teddy's and FDR's offspring have not achieved the stellar successes of their forebears, there are plenty of Roosevelts to tip the odds of future achievement in their favor. For example, Teddy Roosevelt sired six children by two wives, who then bore 11 grandchildren. Not bad, but FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt had them beat. To quote Wikipedia, their five surviving children produced among them "...nineteen marriages, fifteen divorces, and twenty-nine children."

We can assume that the Roosevelts will be a part of American life for generations to come--if not in prominent political placements, then in the myriad towns (at least ten), schools (six institutes of higher learning, plus countless grade schools), streets, buildings, and public works named after these two incredibly influential leaders.