Born: October 11, 1884
Died: November 7, 1962 Place of Birth: New York City, New York
Major Notes:
Eleanor Roosevelt is best known for her work in helping make the Universal Declaration of Human Rights accepted by the United Nations.
She came from a well-off family plagued by unfortunate circumstances.
Roosevelt's neurotic mother died when she was only eight years old and her alcoholic father and an older brother died when she was ten.
She and two younger brothers were left in the care of a grandmother in New York who sheltered them from outside influences.
When Roosevelt was fifteen, she was sent to a finishing school in South Fields, England, where she received training in social service and personal responsibilty.
After returning to New York, at age 21, she married a distant cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and by 1916 they had six children.
Her husband was appointed by President Wilson to be Assistant Secretary of the Navy in World War I while she served in the Red Cross.
Tragedy struck the family in 1921 when her husband contracted polio and lost the use of his legs.
Roosevelt nursed her husband back to the point where he could continue his political career.
He won an election to become Governor of New York and she began her public life working for a number of women's groups.
In 1932, FDR as he was known, won election to become President of the United States representing the Democrat party.
She supported her husband by giving speeches on human rights and various women's issues.
Roosevelt, using her newspaper column and radio broadcasts, became an advocate for the country's poor and disadvantaged.
Her husband won four elections for President and died in office in 1945, prior to the end of World War II.
After WWII, President Harry Truman appointed Roosevelt as a US delegate to the United Nations.
She became leader and a vocal advocate for the UN's Human Rights Commission.
As part of her work, she aided John Humphrey in helping to write and having the UN accept the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Eleanor Roosevelt was awarded 35 honorary degrees in her lifetime, including a Doctor of Laws from Clark Atlanta University.
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