tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8499915856437819318.post2072646818936601848..comments2024-03-28T00:33:56.334-07:00Comments on A Line from Linda: Eleanor Roosevelt's Pecan PieAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17268792209201288464noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8499915856437819318.post-15163066023382362892014-06-26T18:19:42.080-07:002014-06-26T18:19:42.080-07:00Hello –
Your blog popped-up while I was looking ...Hello – <br /><br />Your blog popped-up while I was looking for a photo of ER's wedding dress. <br /><br />You see, I am a long time Roosevelt collector & historian and found your post about ER's pecan pie recipe interesting. Thank you. Respectfully - because writing about a historical person so admired like ER is not easy - I would like to point out a few misconceptions in your piece:<br /><br /> - She didn't just meet FDR on the train. They knew each other for years. As a young child ER's mother visited Sara and FDR at Hyde Park and young FDR - he was two years older - gave ER a horseback ride on his back. They were also distant cousins.<br /><br /> - It is a misconception that Sara disapproved of ER. Rather, she felt Franklin was still too young to marry.<br /> -Your line, "Sara...invited them to move into a townhouse on her Hudson River estate" after FDR & ER were married is wrong. It was the Roosevelt home on the Hyde Park estate, not the NYC townhouse on East 65th Street. The townhouses - there were actually two side-by-side - hadn't been built yet and Sara as a Christmas present gave them a drawing of the townhouse she had in mind in 1905. They are not near the Hudson River (I have visited the place...).<br /><br /> - "It was at this time" - 1918 - "that she started to get involved in public life. Sorry, the historical record tells us otherwise, as two examples in 1917 after the US entered WWI she started a knitting group to knit items for soldiers and worked at a Red Cross canteen at Union Station in DC.<br /><br /> - It has been debunked that FDR did not contract polio from swimming, but from attending a Boy Scout camp before traveling to Campobello, Canada. In fact, as late as 2003 a team of medical doctors concluded that FDR most certainly had Gullain-Barre syndrome, not polio (source: CNN).<br /><br />- You are correct that FDR first ran for governor in 1928 and won by a squeaker (around 25,000 votes in the end). But because the NY governorship was then a two-year term, he ran again in 1930 and won with over 700,000 votes over his opponent.<br /><br />- ER's income not only matched FDR's presidential salary. It far exceeded it in her writing and speaking fees. (In fact, ER was wealthier than FDR when they married as she had a trust fund of $7,500 annually in 1905 while FDR's was $5,000 or more than $75,000 and $50,000 respectively in today's dollars).<br /><br />Lastly, just know I appreciate your writing about the Roosevelts. But I wanted to take the opportunity to correct some misconceptions. And hope you will find them constructive rather than critical. <br /><br />I close in sending my best to you.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br /><br />Scott W. Larsen<br />New Westminster, BC, Canada<br />SWLarsenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05930541598086752040noreply@blogger.com