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Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the US from 1933 to 1945, was born in 1884 into a wealthy and privileged family which formed part of New York’s high society, also known as the ’swells’. Not blessed with looks, she was shy and insecure. Her parents died when she was young and Eleanor was sent to finishing school in the UK. Her headmistress there must have been influential in the character formation of Eleanor as she was a strong defender of women’s rights and independence, which became a life long goal for Eleanor.

After her return from Britain in 1902, she went to work as a social worker in the slums of New York’s east side. She met her future husband and 5th cousin once removed, Franklin D. Roosevelt and her low self esteem received a boost by the attentions of the dashing, young Harvard graduate. After a long engagement, they were married. Eleanor’s mother in law, who was also her aunt, proved a dominant figure in the young couple’s life and many biographers have wondered why Eleanor allowed such influence.

Things changed dramatically, when in 1921, Franklin fell ill with a heavy fever, an illness which left him with both legs paralised. Eleanor devotedly cared for her husband, and upon the urgings of his advisors, began taking an active role in politics, advocating women’s right and fighting segregation.

The marriage was on the rocks, when Franklin had an affair with Eleanor’s social secretary, Lucy Mercer, but divorce was avoided for the sake of his political career. When he was sworn in as president in 1933, Eleanor vowed to become a very active First Lady, not just a decorative appendage of the White House.

Her innate shyness was overcome by her very public role and her achievements as a women’s right activist and her decisive influence in the formation of the United Nations to which she became a delegate after her role as First Lady ended. She became one of the most admired personalities of the 20th century. Her private life as wrought with drama and mystery. Rumours of a lesbian relationship with the journalist Lorena Hickok, although never confirmed, perist as well as of affairs of both Eleanor and Franklin.

In 1960, Eleanor was struck and injured by a car in New York. She never fully recovered and died in 1962 in a New York hospital.