Happy Birthday President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jan. 30, 1882: *The Other FDR Memorial, WDC*

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Fri Jan 31, 2020, 04:07 AM - Edit history (1)

(2016), Happy Birthday Franklin Roosevelt, Jan. 29, 2016, By Paul M. Sparrow, Director, FDR Library. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Jan. 30, 1882- April 12 1945).

Birthdays are always a good time to take stock and look back. On this, the 134th anniversary of Franklin Roosevelt’s birth, it is important to remember what made him so special. He was born at Springwood, the family home in Hyde Park. It was a difficult birth on a cold winter’s day. The doctor advised his mother Sara not to have any more children because it might prove fatal.



- Rare photograph of Roosevelt in a wheelchair, with Fala and Ruthie Bie, the daughter of caretakers at his Hyde Park estate. Photo taken by his cousin Margaret Suckley, (Feb. 1941).

Growing up, surrounded by the great beauty of the Hudson River Valley, adored by his mother, provided with every luxury and opportunity, it would have been easy for Franklin Roosevelt to glide through life as a pampered member of the New York elite. But he did not choose that path. There was something inside him that drove him to go beyond traditional expectations. To find a way to do something important. To do the right thing.

As a boy he fervently collected birds, books and stamps. He absorbed facts and details and converted them into knowledge and wisdom. He explored the vast acres around his home and developed a great love of the land....

More, https://fdr.blogs.archives.gov/2016/01/29/happy-birthday-franklin-roosevelt/
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- *The Other FDR Memorial* April 10, 2015 by jessiekratz, posted in National Archives History, Pennsylvania Avenue, Presidents.



- Franklin Roosevelt Grave Site, April 12, 1953. (Photo from the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, National Archives)

On April 12, 1965, a small group of people gathered at the triangular plot on Pennsylvania Avenue near the National Archives Building in Washington, DC. They were family and close friends of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and were assembled to dedicate a memorial to the late President on the 20th anniversary of his death.

The memorial was very much unlike the current FDR Memorial on the tidal basin. It was—and still is—a small and simple block of marble made from the same quarry as the FDR’s gravestone at Hyde Park, NY. The memorial was paid for by private donations that were not made public (although their names are sealed into the base of the stone).

The modest design was intentional—on September 26, 1941, Roosevelt had told his friend Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter:

“If any memorial is erected to me, I know exactly what I should like it to be. I should like it to consist of a block about the size of this (putting his hand on his desk) and placed in the center of that green plot in front of the Archives Building. I don’t care what it is made of, whether limestone or granite or whatnot, but I want it plain without any ornamentation, with the simple carving, ‘In Memory of ____’.”

Those words are engraved on a plaque in front of the memorial.



President Lyndon B. Johnson, who missed the dedication because he was throwing the first pitch at the Washington Senators baseball game, later stopped by to place a wreath at the memorial. Johnson also issued a statement honoring FDR which began, “Twenty years ago—wearied by war, strained by the cares and triumphs of many years—the great heart of Franklin Roosevelt came to a stop. Most of us here shared the darkness of that day, as we had shared the difficult and shining days which had gone before...



- FDR Memorial and plaque, August 6, 2014, corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 9th Street NW, next to the National Archives Building in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jeff Reed, National Archives)

READ MORE, https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2015/04/10/the-other-fdr-memorial/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt



- Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt with their first two children, Anna and Baby James at Hyde Park In New York in 1908.

[Aristus]

1. I just finished "The Gatekeeper", a biography of FDR's personal secretary, and her relationship with

him.

It was affectionate, but purely professional. She has been accused by some of FDR's biographers to have been one of his mistresses, but "The Gatekeeper" refutes that.

Excellent book.

[appalachiablue]

2. Marguerite 'Missy' LeHand, she was certainly an important figure

in FDR's life and work aiding him on a daily basis esp. during the critical New Deal years until she had the stroke in 1941. The book sounds very interesting, thanks. The Roosevelts had busy, complex lives and their importance to the nation's business is foremost to me. Lucky for us and America their tremendous efforts and abilities helped lead us through some of the darkest times in our history.



- FDR works on a speech in Nov. 1938 in his Hyde Park office with Marguerite LeHand, Marvin McIntyre and Grace Tully (Photo is not labeled correctly).

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/missy-lehand-fdr-secretary-new-deal-214196