First Lady, humanitarian;
born in New York City (niece of Theodore Roosevelt). Shy and insecure
as a child, she was educated privately, and in 1905 she married
Franklin D. Roosevelt (a distant cousin).
The first sign of her
abilities came during World War I when she worked for the Red Cross;
She remained an active force
in Democratic politics and served as a sort of unofficial American
ambassador to the world of the downtrodden. In 1961 President John F.
Kennedy reappointed her to the U.S. delegation to the UN; she also
chaired the Kennedy administration's Commission on the Status of
Women.
By the time of her death,
she was recognized as the most active and influential of all the U.S.
presidents' wives and had earned the sobriquet, "first lady of
the world."
