Margaret Frith - Who Was Franklin Roosevelt?

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Table of Contents

For my American MotherM.F.
For TeraseJ.O.

Who Was Franklin Delano Roosevelt?

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in 1945, a young soldier stood in front of the White House remembering his president. I felt as if I knew him. I felt as if he knew meand I felt as if he liked me. He was saying what so many Americans were feeling.

FDR, as he was called, had been president since 1933. He was elected four times, serving for twelve years. This was longer than any other president before or since.

When Franklin took office, there were lots of problems waiting for him. Banks were failing. People were out of work. Many had lost their homes. This was the Great Depression.

Franklin wasnt a man to sit around and wonder what to do. In the first hundred days, he signed fifteen major laws bringing help. No president had ever gotten so much done so fast.

Franklin not only dealt with the Depression, he led the country through the dark days of World War II.

What made him such a strong leader? Perhaps his strength came in part from a personal crisis. It happened when he was thirty-nine years old. He was on summer vacation with his family. Overnight he was struck with a disease called polio. Franklin never walked again. But he fought hard to stay strong and healthy. He never gave up. He ran the country with the same spirit and optimism.

Not everyone liked Franklins ideas. But most of the country loved him. Millions wept as if he were part of their family when they learned of his sudden death. Many could not imagine the United States without FDR as president.

Chapter 1

Growing Up in Hyde Park

In a big house called Springwood, high above the Hudson River in Hyde Park, New York, a baby boy was born on January 30, 1882.

At a quarter to nine my Sallie had a splendid large baby boy. He weighs ten pounds without clothes, his father, James Roosevelt, wrote. The babys mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, said that he was pink, plump and nice. She named him Franklin after her favorite uncle.

When they met, Sara was twenty-five and James was fifty-one, a widower with a grown son. James fell in love with Sara at a dinner party. The hostess remembered that James couldnt keep his eyes off Sara. They were married in 1880.

Sara and James came from old, wealthy families in the Hudson Valley. They grew up in lovely homes with lots of helpcooks, butlers, maids, and gardeners. James was a gentleman farmer and hired workers to do the farming.

Franklin was an only child. He was the apple of his mothers eye and Franklin loved her very much, even when she was bossy.

Franklin grew up around adults. He did not go to school. He was taught at home by tutors until he was thirteen. Yet, even with no other children around, Franklin found life at Springwood fun. In the winter, he went on sleigh rides or sledded full speed down snowy hills. He was happy exploring the woods and fields. Franklin loved horseback riding with Popsy. Thats what he called his father.

From an early age, Franklin began collecting stamps. This was a hobby he enjoyed all his life. His greatest love, however, was the sea. He played with model boats. He sailed in the summer. And when he was older, he went iceboating on the Hudson River in the bitter cold. (An iceboat was like a sled with sails and went very fast.)

When Franklin was nine, Popsy bought a yacht called the Half Moon.Franklin was excited to go sailing on it at Campobello.

Campobello is an island off the east coast of Canada. The Roosevelts spent summers there in a cottage they had built. The strong winds and high tides made sailing around the island tricky. But Franklin loved the challenge and became a fine sailor. At sixteen, he had his own sailboat, New Moon.

Another family on Campobello told the Roosevelts about the Groton School. It was a boarding school north of Boston, Massachusetts. Franklins parents decided to send him there.

Most of the boys started at Groton when they were twelve. But Franklin didnt go until he was fourteen. His mother couldnt bear to let him go earlier. Not surprisingly, he was homesick at first.

Life at Groton was very different from Springwood. It was modeled after an English boarding school with no frills and a harsh lifestyle. Franklin lived in a room with other boys. Once, during the night, snow blew in through an open transom of the dorm. Franklin and the boys woke up nearly freezing. Still, that didnt excuse them from the cold shower they had to take every morning.

Sports were important at Groton, and to Franklin. He loved playing football. He was slight and not very fast. Still, he fought hard and had the scrapes and bumps to prove it.

His parents were more interested in his studies. It pleased them that he was fourth in his class of nineteen boys.

In the spring of 1900, Franklin graduated from Groton. That fall, he entered Harvard. For the past few years, his fathers health had been failing. Soon after Thanksgiving, Franklin got word that Popsy was very ill. He died of heart failure on December 8.

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