Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), the wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, became a distinguished public figure in her own right. She was probably the most active first lady in American history. Mrs. Roosevelt, a niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, won fame for her humanitarian work.
Mrs. Roosevelt was christened Anna Eleanor Roosevelt. But her family called her Eleanor, and she almost never used her real first name. In 1905, she was married to Franklin D. Roosevelt, a distant cousin. She began to work politically in his behalf after a polio attack crippled him in 1921. While Roosevelt was governor of New York and later President, she frequently made fact-finding trips for him. During World War II, Mrs. Roosevelt traveled to Europe, Latin America, and other parts of the world. She began to work with young people and the underprivileged, and fought for equal rights for minority groups.
Roosevelt served as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. In 1946, she was elected chairman of the UN's Human Rights Commission, part of the Economic and Social Council.
She helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1961, she returned to the General Assembly.
Her books include This Is My Story (1937), This I Remember (1950), On My Own (1958), and Tomorrow Is Now (published in 1963, after her death).
