FDR, Eleanor and Lucy Mercer

Many women adored Franklin Delano Roosevelt but his relationship with Lucy Mercer was one that lasted for decades until his death. Lucy was employed by Eleanor Roosevelt as her social secretary in 1913. Five years later Eleanor wrote,”the bottom dropped out of my particular world” after she found a packet of love letters from Lucy to FDR. His mother threatened to disinherit him if he divorced Eleanor, and his advisers told him a divorce would ruin any chance he had of becoming president. FDR promised his wife he would end his affair with Lucy and never see her again. Of course he did not keep that promise. Lucy came back into his life after he was elected president of the United States.

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Eleanor felt inferior to Lucy who was pretty and vivacious. Eleanor had buck teeth, no chin to speak of, and slumped over. Lucy had perfect posture and a soft mellow voice while Eleanor’s keened. Eleanor felt that she could not compete with Lucy. After she found the affair had commenced again Eleanor couldn’t eat and vomited when she did. The acids brought up damaged her gums and loosened her teeth which caused them to protrude even further.

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Historian Joseph E. Perisco writes that he can document with letters written to Lucy by FDR between 1925 and 1928 how early FDR broke his promise to Eleanor. He says,”the contact between FDR and Lucy was almost unbroken for decades. Lucy was with him at Warm Springs when FDR was stricken with polio. She visited him many, many times at the White House under the name of “Mrs. Paul Johnson” FDR arranged accidental meetings while driving through the country side as he often did. And she was almost always with him at the Little White House in Warm Springs Georgia.

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While Eleanor is often portrayed as a pitiful rejected figure of a woman she overcame her shyness and went confidently to speak of discrimination, racial injustice, and for those unfortunate voices who could not speak for themselves. She became a powerful voice for all the world’s rejected and dispossessed. Perisco writes,”Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s dilemma was essentially that he was married not simply to a wife, but a stateswoman-she might be a scold, and a nag, but he could never shut her out completely because he knew she brought him back to his true bearings. But a woman so furiously rushing about to right the world’s wrongs, who would shout a warning , and opinion, a criticism over her shoulder while rushing from the White House to storm the next barricade, could not provide the solace FDR hungered for.”

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The interesting thing is that in spite of all the conflict and Lucy Mercer, FDR and Eleanor had a stable marriage and were true friends. He asked her opinion and she freely gave it. They believed in each other. It’s hard not to feel sorry for Eleanor but she grew from the experience and her spirit became strong enough to overcome her shyness and rejection. Historian Doris Goodwin said,” I have often thought ,”Thank God for Lucy Mercer because it freed Eleanor and allowed her to find who she was.”

http://www.socyberty.com/People/Charles-and-Emma-Darwin-The-Marriage-of-Science-and-Religion.554789