The early years in the life and times of America's thirty-second President.
American Presidents
Early Years
The thirty-second President of the United States was born on January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, in upstate New York. Franklin Roosevelt was the only child of James Roosevelt, Sr. and Sara Ann Delano. They were both from wealthy old New York families and their Democratic persuasions would set their son apart from other members of the Hudson River Valley aristocracy. Franklin Roosevelt grew up as a member of the privileged class. His mother was very possessive and the primary influence in his formative years, while his father was older and more remote, having been 54 years of age when his son, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was born.
As a child,Franklin Roosevelt enjoyed frequent trips to Europe and learned how to ride, shoot, play polo and lawn tennis. He graduated from boarding school in 1900, and went on to Harvard University from which he graduated with a BA in 1904. While attending Harvard, his distant cousin, Theodore Roosevelt, became president. His vigorous style and zeal for reform left a lasting impression on young Franklin Roosevelt.
Eleanor, Marriage, and Politics
Franklin Roosevelt met his future wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, Theodore's niece, at a White House reception in 1903. They married in 1905 much to the chagrin and disapproval of Franklin's mother. The couple had six children, five of whom reached adulthood and led tumultuous lives. Franklin Roosevelt studied law at Columbia University, passed the bar in 1907, and for the next three years practiced corporate law with a prominent New York law firm. He entered politics in 1910 and was elected to the New York State Senate from the district around Hyde Park, which had not elected a Democrat since 1884. Franklin Roosevelt was not a faithful husband and began an affair with Lucy Mercer, who was Eleanor's own social secretary.
In 1912, under the leadership of Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt became Assistant Secretary to the Navy.
Campobello, Illness and Governorship
While vacationing at Campobello Island
, in August of 1921, Franklin Roosevelt contracted what was then diagnosed as polio, and became completely paralyzed from the waist down. For the rest of his life, he refused to accept the fact that he was permanently paralyzed. Despite this, from 1928-1932, Franklin Roosevelt served as governor and his strong base in the state made him an obvious contender for the Democratic nomination, which resulted in his becoming the only American president to ever serve more than two terms.
See also:
"President Franklin Roosevelt"
